Nightmares
by OughtaKnowBetter
Summary: Mutant X visits Tess and Ernest one last time. Thanks again to everyone who's been so enthusiastic.
1. Default Chapter

Disclaimer: don't own 'em, just borrowing for a bit. Only payment I get is the satisfaction of getting these damn stories out of my dreams, night after night after night. Can't stop thinking about them until they get written down!

Nightmares

By OughtaKnowBetter

            It woke him out of a sound sleep.

            His arm had started throbbing again. The pain-killers had worn off in four hours, just as promised, and it was three in the morning. Brennan knew that because the big red numbers were glaring at him from his clock, reminding him that there was a still a huge chunk of the night to be gotten through. His bed, usually very comfortable, had turned into the consistency of lumpy oatmeal with _very_ hot milk poured over it. Brennan felt miserable.

            Yesterday's scene reminded itself to him with every thudding heartbeat: the whole saving-the-world thing, the knife fight that ended up with a dead mutant and a bunch more on the run and Brennan Mulray with a slice in his arm that had taken the doc two hours to finish embroidering. The only remnants of the episode were a bottle of antibiotics, a bunch of pain-killers, and a few sour memories. Worth it? Not hardly.

            He glanced at the bedside night stand. The pain-killers were there but the glass of water that Shalimar had left him had long since been polished off. Getting those horse pills down his throat without a drink would be near impossible. Brennan sighed. Which was worse, getting up for water or living with the pain? Compared to the cold air outside the blankets, the bed was warm and comfortable. Decision made: his arm wasn't that bad. He closed his eyes and rolled over.

            And jumped up, yelping.

            "Pain-killers," he grumbled, fumbling with the sling. Damn telekinetic, throwing knives at him from behind. Brennan had been lucky not to be sliced into two.

            Then he sobered. Damn _dead_ mutant. Brennan had been lucky he'd turned at the right moment to only catch it in the arm. Shalimar had taken the man down in the next breath, and Lexa had finished him. Then Jesse had dragged him out of the warehouse before the resulting explosion could turn all four of them into quivering mutant jelly. The flying shrapnel alone—pieces of shattered brick—would have skewered him had it not been for Jesse's quick phasing solid to deflect the tiny missiles.

            Water. He could do this. The left-over narcotics in his system made Brennan stagger, but the bathroom was just down the hall. He clutched onto the door frame, pills in hand, and set out in search of something to wash them down with. Good thing he could navigate through Sanctuary with his eyes closed. He stumbled into the bathroom, and sent the pills down his throat with a sigh. Relief was mere moments away. He leaned against the wall of the bathroom, savoring the feel of the cold tile against his hot skin.

            Then he heard something. It wasn't any of the usual Sanctuary sounds, the computer whirrings that went on all night, the sound of the ventilators circulating air in the cavernous abode, the multitudinous creaks that went along with living underground with metal expanding and contracting under the various heat and pressure stimuli. No, this was different. Adrenaline spurted, driving the last bits of narcotic from his system. Brennan Mulray came alert. There were little crackling sounds, little sparks echoing in the hallway not too far from here. Throbbing arm forgotten, Brennan went to investigate.

            "What the—?" The words came out unbidden. Brennan had never seen anything like it.

            The thing looked like a black smoke ball, roiling and billowing at the edges, casting off wispy dark smudges of soot to rise up hotly to the ceiling. It hovered some three feet off of the floor, cuddling against a bank of electrical wiring. Open wires shot off spikes of electricity that the thing eagerly inhaled. And it was growing.

            Whatever it was, it didn't look good. "Hey!" Brennan shouted at it.

            It noticed him. _It must have ears somewhere in there_, Brennan thought crazily. The thing advanced on him, sparks flying.

            "Stay back," Brennan warned.

            It didn't listen, despite the unseen ears. It grew in size, stretching its dimensions to a width large enough to swallow Brennan whole.

            Brennan pulled his arm from its sling, discomfort forgotten. He twisted several million volts of electricity between his own fingers. "Stay back," he warned again. Whatever this thing was, it didn't have polite intentions. It sparked again, almost lazily sending an exploratory jolt in Brennan's direction.

            Brennan shot back, fear adding extra juice. The thing exploded in a shower of sparks, knocking him off of his feet and slamming him up against the wall. He banged his arm and saw stars. The pain set his head to reeling. _Good thing I'm already on the floor. I'd hate to fall down right now_.  The world faded briefly. Next thing he knew, there were teammates around. _Finally_.

            "Brennan!" Shalimar was the first to get to him. "What's wrong? What happened?"

            "Intruder," he managed to gasp. "Big cloud thing."

            Shalimar looked around, her eyes going feral, searching for the interloper that had hurt a member of her family, ready to tear it to shreds. She sniffed the air. There was nothing beyond the smell of ozone, courtesy of a bolt of lightning from Brennan.

            Lexa padded up, yawning, hastily belting her robe. Her sleepiness vanished when she saw the state that Brennan was in. "Brennan?"

            "He saw an intruder," Shalimar snapped. "Take care of him. I'm going to search Sanctuary."

            "Get Jesse up first, to do a computer scan," Lexa advised. 

            "No need." Jesse stumbled toward the computer lab, stifling his own yawn. "I'm on it."

*          *          *

            "Nothing." Shalimar was not happy. "Not a shred of evidence."

            "I saw it," Brennan insisted, barely able to keep his eyes open now that the fresh set of pain-killers had kicked in. He leaned forward from his perch on the low divan, wishing that he was seated higher on a stool with his team mates, and could sit there without falling off. Being at eye-level with the others would have added weight to his story. But the others had picked him up from the floor and dumped him here, counting on the narcotics to keep him in place. Brennan refused to give in to the dizziness that the narcotics caused but stupidity was not in his nature; he stayed where he was put. "Dammit, I saw it."

            "A big ball of smoke with eyes," Lexa nodded. At four in the morning it was hard to keep the sarcasm out of her voice. She jammed her hands into the over-sized pockets of her robe.

            "It didn't have eyes," Brennan told her angrily. "And, yes, it was there. I didn't imagine it!"

            "I don't know, Brennan," Jesse said doubtfully. "Those pain-killers are pretty potent stuff. And neither the computers or any of us found any hard evidence to back up your story."

            "I saw it!"

            "Not saying that you didn't," Jesse soothed. His eyes looked haunted, and Shalimar set her jaw in dismay. He'd been having _those_ nightmares again, she deduced. Jesse'd been free of them for several months now, and she wondered what had set them off again. Shalimar was not a happy feral; first Jesse with recurrent nightmares and now Brennan seeing things. But Jesse kept on going. "Maybe you saw a spark, and in the dark it looked like something else."

            "Jesse, it was alive and it was coming at me! I—"

            "—need some sleep," Lexa cut him off firmly. "Whatever it was, it's not here now. Either you shot it to hell and back, or it never was here in the first place; I don't much care. It's not here now," she repeated. "Which means you go back to bed, so that I can go back to sleep."

            "But—"

            "Shalimar didn't find anything. Jesse didn't find anything. _I_ didn't find anything," Lexa said firmly. "Good night, Brennan."

            "But—"

            "C'mon, guy," Jesse said, more to forestall an argument than anything else. "We're all tired. It was a killer day yesterday, and tomorrow is almost here. We'll puzzle it out in the morning."

            "It is morning," Brennan pointed out.

            "The real morning." Jesse stifled a yawn. "C'mon. You need a shoulder to lean on, getting back to your room?"

            "Not in this lifetime," Brennan growled, his pride stung.

            But Shalimar tucked him in anyway, setting another glass of water by his bed. She caressed his cheek, kissing him on the top of his dark head. "Good night, Brennan."

            "I saw it."

            "And I believe you. We'll sort it out tomorrow. Go to sleep."

            "I saw it," Brennan repeated petulantly as his eyes closed in spite of himself.

*          *          *

            Shalimar stepped out of the shower, toweling her blonde ringlets dry, feeling better than she had when she'd risen for the second time this morning. She was still worried about Brennan. It wasn't like the big elemental to hallucinate like that, even when flying high on prescription pain-killers. No, Brennan tended to simply drift off to sleep. There had been plenty of times after particularly nasty fights when he'd just cuddled into her lap, defenses down thanks to narcotic interference, showing glimpses of the sensitive soul within and allowing Shalimar to take care of him. Those were some of the nicest moments that Shalimar could think of.

            No, seeing things just wasn't typical of her teammate. Sure, the computer security system hadn't found anything. And Shalimar herself couldn't find a trace of whatever it was that Brennan had shot at. But that didn't mean that Shalimar wasn't going to look again. And again. And maybe a third time, even with Lexa's sarcastic laugh ringing in her ears.

            Shalimar froze. No, it wasn't Lexa's laughter that she heard, but it was a slithering sound. Something was here in the shower with her. She went feral.

            _Slither_. And again. Shalimar focused in on it, seeking the source of the sound.

            She didn't have far to look. They caught sight of each other in the same instant: Shalimar, and a large king cobra.

            The snake hissed, drawing itself up so that its head was almost as tall as Shalimar's. It danced in the air still steamy from the shower, tongue flicking out to test the tenor of its prey, its head swaying hypnotically.

            Feral senses narrowed down to one thing: the head of the king cobra. There was only one place where it could be defeated: just behind the hood. Too close to the head, and her hand wouldn't close around the massive hooded neck. Too far down, and the snake would turn to sink vicious hollow teeth into her arm and inject lethal venom. And then the world would be minus one feral mutant. Shalimar balanced on the balls of her feet. Who was faster: the feral or the cobra?

*          *          *

            "What's this?" Jesse looked at Lexa's offering suspiciously. The circles under his eyes were, if anything, deeper than before, but the molecular was putting up a good front. The computer in front of him beeped plaintively, begging for attention, but Jesse ignored it in favor of inhaling the aroma of freshly ground coffee. He reached out for a mug from Lexa despite his suspicions. _Nightmares be damned. I need caffeine_.

            "It's coffee. It's morning, it was a rough night. It's coffee. Black and strong."

            Brennan spoke up. "I think what Jesse's trying to say is, why? You brought four cups on a serving tray. I didn't think you knew that we had a serving tray. What's the occasion?"

            Lexa glared. "Do I have to have a reason?"

            Brennan accepted a cup in his good hand. The other arm stayed cuddled in its sling. "Lexa, you have a reason for everything that you do. Bringing us coffee in the morning isn't like you."

            "Rest assured, with this reception, this will never happen again."

            "I didn't say I didn't appreciate it," Jesse said hastily. "Hey, bringing me coffee in the morning is great." He set it carefully down beside the computer after taking a sip. "Any breakfast to go with it?"

            "Don't push your luck, brain boy."

            "Just asking." Jesse threw up his hands with a grin. The expression didn't quite come off, but he tried. Lack of sleep got in the way, and he yawned.

            "You find any more on Brennan's late night visitor?"

            "Yeah, I'd like to hear the answer to that one." Brennan leaned forward, coffee forgotten. "What 'cha got?"

            Jesse shrugged, and sighed. "Sorry, Brennan. I'm coming up empty. I've run every scan this place has got and then some. Unless your ghost has no mass, velocity, heat, radiation of any kind, and no energy signature whatsoever, nothing was here."

            "A _real_ ghost, you mean," Brennan grumbled. "I was seeing things." In the bright light of day, that explanation sounded more reasonable than a big black cloud of angry electrons. But _dammit_, he'd been so sure! "I could have sworn that there was something there."

            "Amazing what drugs will do to your mind," Lexa said dryly. She started to sort through the mail that she'd also tossed onto the tray. "Advertising, advertising, charity begging letters, bills…" She held one up. "Here's one for you, Jesse. From Lady Esther Zietzburg. Isn't that the woman taking care of those kids that you rescued over a year ago? I didn't know she had a title."

            "She doesn't. I think." Jesse hastily grabbed the letter from the chromatic elemental. "Adam didn't think she did, but was never certain. Lady Esther had hidden her past too well to be entirely certain, and she still likes to keep a certain mystery about her."

            "She's a psionic, isn't she?" Lexa remembered. "Well, I don't blame her for a little bit of confusion. Makes it easier to keep out of the way of the big bad people who want to crawl inside your head and nest there."

            "Borderline psionic," Jesse said absently, perusing the letter. "The three kids are doing well. School wants to promote Ernest up two grades instead of one because he's bored with doing seventh grade work. Lady Esther is seriously considering it, but is worried about socialization issues. Says Ernest spends too much time on the computer as it is." He looked up and grinned. "Like that's a problem." He read some more. "Tess has settled down, and she and Tom have hit it off, mutant-wise. Tess takes a psionic-vampire hit off of Tom every morning, and that slows Tom down enough that he can keep his telepathic powers under control."

            "Sounds like they're doing well," Brennan commented. His coffee had finally cooled off enough to be drinkable and he paused for a larger gulp. "What's the problem?"

            "I'm not sure." Jesse kept on reading. "Everything she writes looks good. Kids are growing up healthy, Tom and Tess have even started taking karate lessons at the local club. Seems like they kept pestering Lady Esther to let them after our last little escapade with them." He winced, remembering the episode. Jumping around and working out had not been part of his life immediately afterwards. Crawling around the house, trying to keep from getting dizzy and falling down on his face had been. Pretty similar to the first time he'd met Tess and Ernest, he recalled ruefully. _Not a good track record there, Kilmartin. See the Maguire kids, get crunched by their dad every time._

            "Don't see why," Lexa mused. "Absalom Maguire is now completely and irrevocably insane. There's no way he can harm them again. They don't need to know how to defend themselves against him."

            Brennan snorted. "Wake up, Lexa. Maguire is not the only danger that they can expect to face in their lives. First, they're mutants. That in itself makes them targets. Second, look at Tess. She's only fourteen now, but she's going to be a looker in another couple of years. I'd say she's being smart." He cocked his head at Jesse. "Doesn't sound like there's any problems in the countryside."

            "Has to be." Jesse scanned the letter again. "Lady Esther's invited us out for a couple of weeks."

            "You're paranoid, Kilmartin," Lexa observed.

            "Yeah, but it's a _healthy_ paranoia. People really _are_ out to get us."

            "Couldn't possibly be that the kids want you three to visit. Maybe there's a school vacation coming up; they're going to try to talk you into Disneyworld?"

            Brennan snorted. "Like their lives haven't been a scene straight out of fantasy. Only without the fun." He looked around. "Where's Shal? Her coffee's getting cold."

            Jesse glanced back at the computer. The screen helpfully displayed green dots for the inhabitants' locations. "Heading this way. Entering in three…two…one…"

             The door banged open, and Shalimar tossed a very large, very dead snake into the room. It landed on the floor and rolled over to form a vaguely S-shaped figure, its mouth gaping open to display its no longer lethal teeth. "This may not be your intruder of last night, Brennan, but I would really like to know how this got in. Especially since the nearest known king cobra is safely in the zoo."

*          *          *

            "Yes, I am kicking you both out." Shalimar stood her ground, all five foot four of it. "Go visit Lady Esther and the kids. Lexa and I will join you as soon as we've cleaned house."

            "I am not leaving you two here to fight this thing," Brennan insisted. "We don't know what it is."

            "Good point. But we do know that you—" she jabbed Brennan in the sore arm and he yelped—"are not up to fighting speed. You will be in the way. And you—" and it was Jesse's turn next to come under scrutiny—"haven't slept for three nights. Or more."

            "Have, too," Jesse protested.

            "Hah. That's why Lexa found you dozing over the computer this morning. And why you're yawning all the time."

            "Am not." Jesse couldn't help but stifle a yawn at the feral's words. Brennan covered a smirk.

            "Therefore, as of now, the two of you are on vacation. This way we stone two birds without getting killed. You two get the rest that you so desperately need—"

            "I am never desperate," Brennan protested.

            "—and we can do our work without worrying about either one of you." Shalimar smiled to take the sting out of her words. "And Lexa and I will join you as soon as we take care of whoever thinks they can get us in Sanctuary. Any questions?"

            "What—"

            "I meant that rhetorically, Jesse." Shalimar shook her finger at the molecular. "No arguments. Go!"

*          *          *

            "I can drive," Brennan insisted.

            "_Not_. You took drugs less than an hour ago."

            "I'm still okay to drive."

            "Not a chance, Sparky. I want to get there in one piece."

            "Oh, so you're so fit to drive? I caught you dozing off."

            "All right, so we're both fools. Why do you think that the girls packed us off for a vacation? Be grateful that we've arrived in one piece." Jesse pulled the red sports car into the driveway of a white clapboard house with a wide veranda. There were several large trees in full leafy regalia shading the front yard, and a swing hanging from one of the massive branches. Bushes ruffled the line of the entranceway, with tulips and daffodils providing spots of color. Brennan smiled; it was the type of place that he wished he could have grown up in. Jesse turned the key in the ignition, shutting off the motor. "There they are."

            Ernest and Tess came tearing out of the house, Tom sauntering behind. Lady Esther came to the door and waved, then hurriedly disappeared inside, called back by some alarm.

            Brennan sniffed the air. "Chocolate chip cookies," he said delightedly. "Nobody makes 'em like Lady Esther!"

            "Jesse!" Ernest yelled. He leaped at his fellow molecular. 

Jesse caught the eleven year old mid-leap with a grin, and dumped him to the ground. "Warn me when you grow, guy. You're getting too big to do that."

"C'mon, Jesse." Ernest tugged excitedly at his hand. "You gotta see what I've been doing with the computer, all the stuff I've hard-wired in. I can—"

"Later, Ernest." Tess shoved her little brother aside with a grin. "My turn." She grabbed Jesse and hugged him hard, careful not to allow bare skin to touch. Jesse noted her actions, pleased. As a psionic vampire, the mere touch to another mutant would drain him senseless within moments. Jesse had had that happen to him more than once and much as he cared about Tess, didn't want it to happen again. Tess moved on to Brennan, giving him equal time though not equal fervor. It was clear: as much as Tess adored all of Mutant X, Jesse was her favorite.

Tom came up slower, aiming for adult restraint. "Hey, bro," Brennan greeted him. Jesse gave him a lazy high five. "How's it going?"

"Better than before," Tom grinned, tossing lanky brown hair out of his face. "Way better. Granny Esther's pretty cool for an old lady."

"She's the best!" Tess averred. "Don't let Tom fake you out. He won't admit it, but he likes Granny a lot, too."

Tom smiled. "She makes a mean chili dog, Brennan."

Brennan grinned back. Finding the perfect chili dog in town had been the goal for the two of them during the first days that Tom had moved in with Lady Esther and the Maguire kids. Mutant X had hung around for a few weeks, helping Lady Esther to recuperate from Tess's inadvertent draining and regaining their own equilibrium after finally shutting Absalom Maguire down for good. "Better than T.J.'s?"

"Yeah. Not by much. But better."

"I'll have to try 'em out." Brennan handed Jesse's duffel bag to Tom, hefting his own in his good hand. "After chocolate chip cookies, man."

"Yeah," Tom reflected. "She makes some good cookies, too. Never thought I'd taste those ever again." There was a hint of bleakness in the teen-ager's voice, not that Brennan blamed him. It had only been a short few months ago that Tom had been contemplating death as the most attractive of his options to escape Absalom Maguire's clutches. The intervening time had done much to fade the memories, but brushes with death tended to have a way of sticking to the soul. _Know that for a fact, brother mutant_.

Brennan took the opportunity to pry, looking for the unwritten reason Lady Esther had called them down here. Jesse had gone on ahead with Tess and Ernest, hauling in the load of goodies and toys that they'd bought on the way down. "How's it going here?"

"It's okay," Tom replied. Teen-age translation: _a great place_. Brennan could get behind that. The low key demeanor meant: _don't ever get too excited about anything, because that would be the signal for the world to slap you by taking it away_. "School's pretty boring."

"Usually is," Brennan agreed. "Hang in there. You don't have too much more to go. You thought about what you want to do after you graduate?"

"Nope. Can't go too far, not without Tess. Gotta stay close to home."

"Yeah, there's that." Brennan fell silent. Those two kids were stuck together, no matter what. Made fighting difficult for them. Daily doses of each other was mandatory unless they wanted to get sick, or worse. The horrors locked away in Tom's brain would crawl out to infect other people unless Tess powered him down, and Tess needed a high octane dose of Tom to keep from getting sick herself.

"There a local college," Tom offered. "I can try that. Gotta work, though. Need the money for tuition. Granny's set, but she's already done a lot. I can't ask that of her."

"Yeah." Brennan moved to another topic, one closer to home. "Anything going on here?"

"What do you mean?" Guarded.

"I mean, an invitation out of the blue to come visit. You guys don't have vacation right now, right? Not that we didn't want to come, but it raised some eyebrows back home."

"Tess wanted to see Jesse." Eyes carefully on the ground.

Brennan began to understand that part of the situation. Tom was worried about his competition. He tried to make light of it, give Tom an out from a too revealing comment. "Ernest too, I'll bet."

"Yeah. I guess." Tom paused to look at Brennan. More concern came forth. "Granny Esther says there's some pretty weird shit going on around here."

Whoa. Change of pace, here. And Brennan doubted that the polite Lady Esther used that kind of terminology to describe the happenings. "What kind of weird shit?"

"I don't know. I've never seen it. But the others have. Mist, creeping around the corners of the house early in the morning. The floor warps overnight, and some of the nails let loose. Bunches of little cockroaches or lizards running around, then they disappear. Sometimes a chipmunk comes up and feeds out of Tess's hand. That's cool; she loves it."

"So you've got some tame chipmunks."

"Uh-uh." Tom shook his head. "They're not tame, Brennan. They'll only do that for Tess. Not Ernest, not me, not Granny."

"She get a charge from another psionic? She used to do that, she said, a few years back with a kid who psychically tuned in on animals."

"Nope. No other mutants around here. We're the only ones. But some of the animals around here keeping getting in, even though we lock up the house tight. Bats, and owls and stuff. Lots of lizards—lots. And, Brennan," and it was clear that no matter how tall he'd become, Tom was still only fifteen, "some of the stuff that Granny has seen sounds a lot like the stuff in my head."

"Ah." Comprehension dawned. This was the issue that they'd been looking for, back at Sanctuary; the reason for the invitation. "She did right to call us down. Who else would believe you guys?"

Tom's face cleared with relief. "That's what Granny said. She said that you guys would know what to do, how to fix it so we're all okay." Some of the worry crept back. "You don't think it's me, do you?" Translation: _I couldn't stand it if it was_.

Brennan tried to reassure him. "If it were only the spooky stuff, yeah I'd be looking at you. But the chipmunks and the other animals; that's not something that you've ever done. The junk we've got to worry about crawling out of your head is the scary stuff. Besides, I don't think real live and solid chipmunks live in there, not even in that nest you call hair. No, I think we've got to look elsewhere for the answers. Anyone else besides Lady Esther see that creepy stuff?"

"Naw. She's the only one." Tom gave Brennan a sideways look. "You think it's just Granny? Maybe she's tuning into my head or something? Just seeing stuff that isn't there? The mist and shit, I mean? Not the solid stuff."

"Beats me." After his own hallucination of last night, that hit uncomfortably close to home for Brennan. "We gotta look around some more. We only just got here. Now, let's get into the house before Jesse eats up all of those cookies!"

*          *          *

Lady Esther settled herself on the sofa, wiping her hands one last time on her apron before removing it. "School night, children," she said firmly, despite the fact that Tom towered over her by a good six inches. Both Brennan and Jesse had to suppress an urge to go do homework themselves. "I know Ernest has finished his, but Tess, your book report is due tomorrow, and Tom, if you don't study you won't do well on your math test, and you know the consequences of that."

"But—" Tess started to protest, looking at Jesse. Her shoulders slumped ever so slightly, but the sigh was for real. "Don't go anywhere. I'll be back real soon." She got up from her spot snuggled close to the molecular, gloved hands aching for honest contact. "I mean that, Jesse."

"Staying right here," Jesse assured her. "Brennan and I will chat with Lady Esther for a bit. If you like, I'll look over your report when you're done."

"Cool."

Brennan didn't miss the smoldering glare that emanated from Tom's direction toward the older molecular. _Oh, yeah. Kid's got it bad_, he thought, and resolved to speak to his teammate tonight, after hours. But for now, he turned to Lady Esther. "And—?"

Lady Esther's blue eyes twinkled over her spectacles. "And what, Mr. Mulray?"

Brennan grinned back. "And the reason that you wanted Mutant X to come calling was—?"

Lady Esther laughed, a tinkling sound of delight. _What a woman she must have been in her prime_, Brennan couldn't help thinking. "I can fool most of the people, but not you. Is that it, Mr. Mulray?"

"Saw right through you," Brennan agreed. "Comes from a misspent youth. Talking to Tom this afternoon didn't hurt."

"But that didn't stop you from coming down to visit."

"Not a chance," Jesse said, trying to fathom the sub-conversation.

"That's all to the good." Lady Esther wagged her finger at them both. "There's something odd going on in this household. I'm beginning to suspect that this house is haunted."

*          *          *

"Nothing," Lexa fumed, pouring over the computer security screens. "It's just like Jesse said. If there was anything here, it has no mass and no energy radiation whatsoever. That smoke cloud thing had to have been a hallucination."

"The cobra was no hallucination," Shalimar reminded her.

"I know. You brought me the carcass, just like a proud little kitty-cat. Can't you leave your play-toys outside where they belong?"

"Meow," Shalimar told her facetiously, refusing to get angry. "So how did it get in? Cobras don't live in this region of the world. That makes its presence here in Sanctuary deliberate, and limits the perpetrators to those who know where Sanctuary is." She tilted her head at Lexa. "The Dominion decide to fire us from their employ?"

"Hardly. And if they did, they'd be a little more overt about it. Like a good sized bomb of the nuclear persuasion." Lexa sighed. "I don't understand this. Could one of the guys be playing a joke on us?"

Shalimar shook her head. "Don't think so. You saw the look on Brennan's face last night. He was not joking. He was out of it. And Jesse's been so wiped these last few days that he can barely think straight."

"Hm." Lexa bit her lip. "I think you may have hit on something."

"I did?"

"I can get behind it not being the guys playing a practical joke. But what if it's someone trying to get at one of them? Think about it, Shal," and Lexa warmed to her subject. "What if it was one of those mutants that we took down a couple of days ago? Some of them could have escaped the explosion, just as we did. Brennan was our lead man on that mission; what if one of the escapees wanted revenge? A knife in the arm wasn't enough. That electric smoke cloud that he saw would have been the perfect way to get rid of an elemental."

"And the cobra? That wasn't electrified."

"No, but it was inside Sanctuary. It could have gotten any of us. It was sheer luck that you found it first, oh faster-than-a-mongoose feral. As sleepy as Jesse has been in the last few days, he would have been bitten three times before he woke up. I'd like to think that I could take it out with a few photons, but snakes are fast. I'm not going to complain about not having the chance to prove myself." Lexa steepled her fingers. "No, I think I'd like to proceed on the assumption that someone is out to get Brennan who, thanks to your Lady Esther, is now safely out of the way. Let's see if we can't dig up a few more clues."


	2. Nightmares 2

"Better watch your step, bro," Brennan advised.

Jesse halted half-way through pulling off his tee. He responded with all the higher level thought he could muster at eleven o'clock at night after a three hour drive and four sleepless nights. "Huh?"

Brennan pulled his toothbrush out of his bag, rummaging with his good hand, his other arm in a sling keeping him movements awkward. "I mean it, man. Didn't you notice how Tess clung to you tonight? If it weren't for the fact that she can't touch any mutant without draining them, she'd have been nibbling on your ear and whispering sweet nothings. Face it, Jesse. You're some serious competition for Tom, and he's feeling the pressure."

"Come again?" Jesse stuffed the tee back into his duffel and flopped onto the bed. The pair were sharing one of the two guest rooms, anticipating that the distaff half of Mutant X would arrive within another day or so. "If you're saying what I think you're saying, Brennan, you're crazy. Tess is jailbait. Sure, she's a dynamite kid, but she's a kid. She's fourteen, Brennan!"

"And Tom is fifteen, and crazy about her," Brennan pointed out. "Here you are, big man from out of town, all suave and sophisticated. You speak Italian like a native. You drive a car that has Tom drooling even without a driver's license. And you've saved her life not once but twice. How can Tom compete with that?"

"He doesn't have to," Jesse growled. "He's welcome to her!"

"Right. Now you've just told them both that she's not good enough for you. You can bet that I know better than to tell a woman that, Jess. Even a fourteen year old woman."

"So what am I supposed to do? Ignore her?" Jesse was honestly bewildered. "We came down to see her, Brennan; her and Ernest and Tom. I mean, I can't exactly go up to Tom and say, 'she's all yours. You can have my blessing.'" He groaned. "I don't suppose running away from Lady Esther's home is an option?"

"A little immature. Besides, I think Tess already tried it. Didn't work then, either." Brennan threw his own shirt at Jesse. "Just watch yourself, man. Stay cool. Don't give Tom any reason to freak, okay?"

"More than okay." Jesse yawned. "Turn out the lights, would you, Brennan? Either it's the fresh country air, or Lady Esther's cooking, or the thought of getting away from it all, but I can't keep my eyes open." He plopped his head onto the pillow. "And don't forget to take your antibiotics. Shalimar will kill us both if you do."

"So don't tell her," Brennan advised. He looked at the narcotics in his hand, and frowned. "After last night, I think these can take a holiday, though."

"Your arm feeling better? No pain?"

"Well enough. The thought of a repeat performance of last night is enough to put me off these things for a good long time."

Jesse stretched, and turned over, tucking the cover underneath his chin. "Not into hallucinations? Fine by me. Just don't forget the antibiotics."

*          *          *

It was the same nightmare that had plagued him for the last week. Absalom Maguire, irrevocably insane father of Tess and Ernest, pursued him down the corridor, shrieking and brandishing a black collar that Jesse remembered all too well. Jesse tried to phase through the wall, to escape the black-cloaked horror, but the specter chased him through the wall into an identical corridor. Which was impossible for Absalom Maguire in real life, but seemed to be perfectly reasonable for the dream version.

Maguire got closer and closer to him. Jesse could see the vivid red burns on the man's face from the factory explosion when they'd rescued Tess the first time. Dream-Maguire clutched at Jesse with claw-like hands, forcing the collar around his neck, choking him. Jesse fought back, trying to call out for help, for his team mates.

"Jesse! Jesse! Wake up, man! You're having a bad dream again!"

Jesse froze. Brennan's concerned visage swam into his line of sight, and Jesse fell back shame-facedly, realizing that he'd instinctively solid-massed his arm preparatory to punching the daylights out of someone. That the someone would have been Brennan only made it worse. "Brennan! Sorry, man. Did I wake you up?"

"You might say that," Brennan returned dryly. "I'm just hoping the rest of the household didn't hear you."

"Damn." Jesse felt cold with sweat. His heart was only now slowing down, and he felt as though he'd run a marathon. "I really didn't mean to do that."

"Same nightmare again? Like the last four nights running?"

"Yeah." Jesse dropped his gaze to the bedcovers. They were disheveled and half onto the floor. He reached down to pull them up off of the floor, and felt dizzy. He grabbed them hurriedly and flopped them onto the bed, hoping that Brennan didn't notice that he was about to pass out. _How the hell could a bad dream do this to me?_

Brennan didn't seem to, but was still concerned about Jesse's over all status. "You gotta do something, man. These things are really getting to you. When was the last time you had a good night's sleep?"

Jesse flopped back against the pillow, trying to make it look natural under the circumstances. "It seems like forever. At least a week. Maybe more. I don't know."

"Talk it out, Jess. It helped the first time, when we first found Tess. Remember? Adam made you talk about it. He made us all take shifts with you at night, until the nightmares went away. We were plenty worried about you, Jess. What do you remember about that time?"

"God, Brennan, don't go there." Jesse squeezed his eyes closed. He still felt wiped out, sweat beading up and making him shiver with cold. "I only remember bits and pieces, just that it was pretty horrible. I think Adam did something like hypnosis to help me get past the worst parts, and maybe Emma did some of it as well." He looked back at Brennan. "You never knew anything about what Maguire was doing in his back lab, did you?"

Brennan shook his head. "Adam just said that it was genetic research, and left it at that. Told us not to bring it up. You looked pretty shaky for a while."

"I was." He laughed hollowly. "Maguire really was advancing the science of genetics. With that one experiment he did with me, he gave Adam valuable insights into just where genetic mutations could be taken."

"At your expense."

"At my expense." Jesse rubbed his fingers together thoughtfully. "You've seen me alter the density of solid objects."

"A million and a half times, bro."

"Ever think what would happen if I didn't put everything back the way I found it?"

"Come again?"

"What if some of the stuff I phased got changed permanently? Maguire did just a small bit that you saw. Think of coal that I phased into diamonds."

"But that was just from pressure," Brennan protested. "Isn't that how diamonds are made? Heat and pressure underground. You sped up the process through phasing; they do that in commercial labs with heavy duty equipment. You re-ordered the molecules into alignment without commercial lab equipment. It nearly killed you."

Jesse laughed shortly. "That didn't matter much to Maguire. He was after results. And he didn't care how he got them."

Brennan felt his blood run cold. "What kind of results, Jesse? What was he trying to do when he took you into the back laboratory, out of my sight? What did he _make_ you do?"

"It was that damn collar." Jesse swallowed hard, knowing that Brennan too had experienced its horror but still needing to talk about it. "It makes you feel like every nerve is on fire. It's like running a thousand watts of electricity through wiring meant for ten; it burns you out. And when Maguire was finished making you do what he wanted, you would wake up to find that you've done something that you never knew you could do. And that you never wanted to do again." Jesse's hands were shaking openly by now. "There were living things in that back laboratory, Brennan. Living things, some of them not yet born."

Blood running cold was only the beginning. Ice crystals were forming from red blood cells. "What kind of living things, Jesse? Humans?"

"I don't remember." Brennan could barely hear the molecular speak. "I think so. Humans, animals, and some things that I don't know what they were. It was one of the things that Adam made me forget; that I really didn't want to remember. And, Brennan, Maguire made Ernest go through that as well. Adam helped him to forget also; told me that there wasn't as much work to do not only because Ernest was younger but because his talents aren't as powerful as mine. Maguire wasn't able to do as much with him, although he tried." Jesse tried to pull himself together. "It's over, Brennan. Maguire is finished. He's insane, and nothing is ever going to bring him back. And his research is finished as well."

"Not quite," Brennan said. "You're still dealing with it, bro. No matter what Adam did for you a year ago, it's still coming back to haunt you right now. Look at you; you're shaking like a leaf."

"Can we not talk about haunting?" Jesse complained. His teeth were chattering in earnest. "After what Lady Esther said earlier, one or more of us is going seem seriously looney-toons." He jumped—something caught his eye. "What the hell was that?"

"What was what?'

"Whatever it was. It was going too fast for me to see."

"Not funny, Jesse. It's three AM."

"I'm not joking, Brennan. I saw something."

"You need some serious sleep—yow!"

"What?"

"I saw it, too. It was either a lizard, or the world's biggest cockroach."

There was a knock at the door. They both jumped.

"Mr. Mulray? Mr. Kilmartin? You sound like you're both awake."

"Lady Esther?" Brennan went to the door and opened it. "What are you doing up at this hour?"

Lady Esther smiled and walked in with a tray in her hands. She set it down on the nightstand. "I've raised four of my own, and a bundle of grandchildren besides these current three. After that many years of child-rearing, I'm a light sleeper."

"Sorry for waking you," Jesse apologized.

"Not at all. As a matter of fact, I'm pleased. I heard you talking; you saw the lizards?"

"One of 'em," Brennan admitted. "There are more?"

"Lots more," Lady Esther replied cheerfully. "Look, there goes another one. And another."

"You need an exterminator!" Brennan yelped, picking his feet up.

"Hush, keep your voice down. You'll wake the children," Lady Esther scolded. "I'm so pleased that you've seen them. So far I'm the only one who has. They scatter whenever anyone else is around. And the exterminator hasn't found hide nor hair of them."

"Lizards don't have hair," Brennan muttered under his breath.

"They mostly appear around now; now through breakfast," Lady Esther continued cheerfully. "Bats, too. And once there was a two foot long slug, but I was able to kill that with a handful of salt. The trash man took it away in a plastic bag."

"Did he know it was in there?"

"You know, I never thought to ask? The thing was quite dead. I wanted it out of the house before it started to smell." Lady Esther fixed a pointed eye on each of them. "And now you realize why I asked you young folks down here." She handed each man a mug. The hot chocolate smelled good, and the chocolate chip cookies hadn't _all_ disappeared that afternoon despite Tom's and Ernest's best efforts.

"How long has this been going on?" Brennan asked, sipping at his hot chocolate.

"Not long," Lady Esther replied. "A week, maybe ten days. At first I thought it was merely an over-active imagination. With my eyesight, at my age, I should be forgiven a little mistake or two.  And there's always the possibility that my own mild psionic powers could be acting up just a trace, tuning in on one of the children's dreams. The lizards are rainbow-colored, after all, and I've yet to see such appearances in nature. But things have gone a bit too far for that explanation."

"I know this sounds crazy, but what about an exorcist?" Jesse wanted to know. "We've seen some pretty strange things now and again."

"No luck. He pronounced the house clean of 'malevolent influences.' After charging me a disgracefully large sum of money, I might add."

"A fraud?"

Lady Esther sighed. "No, unfortunately. He was the real thing. I may not have the power of some of your friends, Mr. Mulray, but I have enough to recognize talent when I see it."

Brennan flexed his arm. The muscles twinged, but that was all. He looked over at Jesse. "Sounds like you and I know what we'll be doing for the rest of the night. Hunting down rainbow-colored lizards and figuring out who's sending them."

"But quietly," Lady Esther warned. "The children need their sleep. They have school in the morning."

*          *          *

"I don't understand it!" Shalimar fumed. "How did that cobra get into Sanctuary?"

"Good question," Lexa responded grimly, fighting with the computer, trying to get it to tell her something that she could accept. 'No logical explanation' wasn't cutting it for her. "If Brennan's cloud thing was anything more than a hallucination, I could see it slipping in through the ventilator shafts. But the shafts are screened over. The cobra couldn't have gotten in that way. Or any other way, from what I can tell."

Shalimar leaned over the console. "Maybe the cobra was a hallucination, too."

"Don't start, Shalimar. You brought me the carcass."

"Maybe it was a mass hallucination. We all saw it. It's been done before."

"Nope. Thought of that. The computer 'saw' it, too. It wouldn't have acknowledged the snake's presence if it hadn't really been here."

Shalimar sighed, and changed the subject. "Had any luck tracking down the escapees from Brennan's little escapade?"

"Amazingly enough, yes. All but one are now behind bars, courtesy of our men in blue."

Shalimar nodded, pleased. "And not likely to leave any time soon. Levitating key rings doesn't help when the locks are electronic and controlled from several rooms away. They're stuck."

"Exactly. And it happened yesterday, before the cobra incident, which means they weren't involved. So we're left with just this one." Lexa switched the computer screen to show a lean and lanky redhead caught in a frozen-in-time picture looking over her shoulder. The woman could have been pretty had she taken the trouble, but just as obviously the woman didn't care. The coat was too big for her and the torn jeans managed to be anything but artful. She simply looked as though she didn't care about her appearance. Greasy hair was just fine by her. "Karen Allbright, feral."

"Mine," Shalimar hissed.

Lexa switched the screen to show the woman's stats. "Power down, Shal. This one's on the run. Last known position was some three hundred miles from here. Care to tell me how she could get a cobra and a smoke cloud inside Sanctuary, a place, I might add, that she has no idea where it is?"

"Someone could have told her." Shalimar wasn't ready to give up so easily. "Then she ran."

"Which would explain why there have been no other incidents since last night," Lexa allowed. "All right. Let's go chase."

*          *          *

"Vanished," Brennan grumbled. "Where could they have all gotten to?"

"Maybe the lizards have a nest in the woods somewhere," Jesse suggested, covering a yawn. He toed over a stone to look underneath. Nothing. Brushing aside a leafy bush proved equally as unrewarding, but he had to keep going—it was _his_ idea that the rainbow-colored lizards were hiding here in the shrubbery surrounding the house. "Gets cold outside, they come inside to get warm. Sun comes up, the lizards go out hunting for food."

"Why do I not buy that?"

"You're the suspicious type?"

"Couldn't possibly be that lizards don't come in Rainbow-Brite colors."

Tess skipped out to join them. She slipped a gloved hand into Jesse's, tugging him away from the forsythia bush that was dropping yellow blossoms in favor of green leaves. "C'mon. Granny says that breakfast is ready."

Brennan brightened. "Sounds good to me. I could use a break. And I'm hungry," he added pointedly.

"You're always hungry," Jesse told him.

"So I'm a growing boy," Brennan grinned. "Right, Tess?"

"Sure." She tugged on Jesse's hand, sliding her arm around his waist. Brennan shot Jesse a meaningful look over her head. The molecular got the hint right away, and disengaged himself before they re-entered the house.

It didn't help. Tom still looked sullen as the trio came in and shook off the cool morning air, digging into his bowl of cereal with a ferocity that Brennan really wished wasn't aimed at Jesse. _Good thing Tess had already done her psychic vampire drain on Tom,_ Brennan reflected. With the power that the teen-age psionic possessed, Jesse would've been jellied brain cells with one look. Ernest was the most cheerful of the household, clattering the dishes as he carried the remains of breakfast to the sink.

"Got a math test today," he informed Jesse. "It's a piece of cake. It's on quadratic equations. I've been doing those all year; they're easy. You need four variables before they _really_ get hard."

"Right," Jesse said. "I use the computer to solve those."

"Can't. Not in school. All they let us use is those dinky little calculators. Can't wait to get to high school. Maybe they'll have some decent stuff there. Seventh grade is boring."

"Enough," Lady Esther said, checking the clock on the wall over the stove. "Time to go. Children, get your schoolbooks. And your jackets." She glanced outside automatically, and did a double take. "What's that?"

The note of dread stiffened Brennan; he darted to the window. "Everyone, down!" he ordered just short of a yell. "Jesse, take the right!" The elemental bolted for the door, the molecular right behind him.

"Cool!" chirped Ernest, staring out through the window before Granny Esther pulled him to the floor and the safety of strong walls. Tess and Tom were more circumspect. They dove to the ceramic tile kitchen floor.

The lone figure stood at the end of the driveway, slowly advancing toward the house. It was tall and thin, and its head shrouded in a black hood that billowed into a long dark robe, obscuring all identification. It moved laboriously, pausing to survey the surroundings, not entirely comfortable in the morning sun.

Brennan strode forward. "Who are you?"

The figure in black noticed the approaching pair for the first time. Almost lazily it waved an arm at them. Flame shot out.

Jesse barely had time to get in front of Brennan and mass solid, deflecting the beam. He staggered back at the force of it, barely managing to keep his footing. Brennan whirled back out from behind his protection and loosed a bolt of his own at the figure. The black specter shattered into little rivulets of _whatever_ that drained away into the dirt of the driveway.

Brennan and Jesse dashed forward, looking around furiously for any sign of the thing that had menaced the house.

"Gone," Brennan exclaimed. "What the hell was that?"

"And where did it go?" Jesse added. "More to the point, is it coming back?"

Brennan scuffed at the dirt. There was no sign that anything malevolent had ever been there. But with hearts pounding and chests heaving, neither one would doubt the visitation. "I guess this can be considered a step up from a flock of lizards in the bedroom, Jess. Somebody's getting more serious."

Jesse nodded slowly. "But who?"

*          *          *

Shalimar positioned herself to one side of the doorway and gave the high sign to Lexa. The chromatic elemental silently counted down on elegantly long fingers: three, two, one—and let loose with a blast of light that knocked the door in.

Shalimar shoulder-rolled in and came up to a crouched position. She ducked, just in time to avoid a long and lanky foot that would have connected with her head, had her head been in the expected place. She retaliated, sweeping her foot around to knock her opponent off of her feet.

But ferals were made of sterner stuff. Karen Allbright twirled in the air to land in her own crouched position. Then she leaped, and bounced off the wall to fly at Shalimar again.

Who wasn't there. Shalimar cartwheeled away, only to return and lash out with her own foot. It connected with the redhead's chest, sending her flying. She crashed into the wall. But even that didn't stop the feral—either one of them.

"This is ridiculous," Lexa muttered to herself. She aimed a jolt of light—and missed. Another missed as well; the two ferals were moving too quickly for a casually aimed bolt. Lexa gritted her teeth. "Speed of light, girl," she snarled under her breath at herself. "_Use_ it!"

Her chance came. Shalimar launched herself into the air, meeting halfway across the room in mid-air with her opponent. She swung Allbright head over heads, but the redhead hung on, taking Shalimar with her. Allbright slammed Shalimar into the far wall hard enough to rattle the blonde's teeth. Allbright spun into a back roundhouse kick, clearly intending to detach Shalimar's head from her neck.

Shalimar ducked—down, but not out! Lexa saw her chance, and shot a bolt of light at the briefly stationary target. Allbright went flying back.

But instead of crashing into the wall as Lexa had hoped, Allbright crashed into a window. A more accurate description would have included the word 'through'.

Both women dashed over to look. Down below horrified onlookers gathered to gawk at the twisted body lying on the concrete, and to call for help. Allbright didn't move. Shalimar glared at Lexa.

"Look at the bright side," Lexa offered sheepishly. "At least now she can't attack Brennan."

*          *          *

Jesse glumly surveyed the sample of driveway dirt that he'd gathered into a test tube that he'd scrounged from Ernest's things. "I could really use the laboratory at Sanctuary right about now," he said pointedly. "Ernest's a bright kid, but there's a limit as to how much technology an eleven year old is able to acquire."

Brennan ignored the plaint. "So what do you think? Anything in there?"

"You really want my considered opinion?"

"Give, Jesse."

"It's dirt."

"Dirt?"

"Dirt." Jesse flicked the test tube, holding it up to the light. "Half a dozen compounds that even the Sanctuary lab would have trouble identifying but are entirely consistent with the geology of this area. No obviously unusual elements, no black pieces of whatever that thing was. If it weren't for the fact that we both saw it, I'd say that there had been nothing there."

"That's not helpful," Brennan observed.

"Ah, but it is." Jesse set the test tube down in the rack. "Whatever it was, it is capable of disappearing without leaving traces of itself behind. It shattered when you zapped it, so those pieces must have left in some other fashion. Either they exited, stage left, or they were reduced to their constituent molecules so that they are indistinguishable from the surrounding environment."

"Speak English."

"It vanished," Jesse said.

"Thanks."

"So what do we do about it? More important, what do we do with the kids? And Lady Esther?"

"I am not going anywhere." Lady Esther walked into Ernest's room, carefully stepping over the pile of dirty clothes lying on the floor and wrinkling up her nose. More piles of carelessly strewn clothing and toys also dotted the floor. "And I can tell you what young Master Maguire will be accomplishing this afternoon besides his homework."

"May not be very safe," Jesse pointed out. "The week-end's coming up. How about spending a couple of days at Sanctuary?"

"Ah, Jess? Remember a certain large snake?"

Jesse dismissed Brennan's concern. "Shalimar and Lexa would have called if there were any more problems on that end. How about it, Lady Esther?"

"Certainly not," Lady Esther declared, blue eyes glinting behind steel blue spectacles. "This is my home. You may take the children for a trip, but I will stay here." She considered. "It might even be good for them, to see the better side of their heritage. Then they wouldn't have to grow up thinking that their mutant abilities are bad, something to be hidden instead of cherished. Excellent idea. Take them to Sanctuary." Then Lady Esther wagged her finger warningly at them. "But not until Friday afternoon. I will not have them missing school for this. Ernest could manage it, but Tess has a test on Friday and Tom needs tutoring in math, Mr. Kilmartin! There was a reason that I asked you down here, after all. All this haunting nonsense is all very well, but young Thomas is in danger of failing his math class. You will see that he does not!"

"Yes, ma'am," Jesse replied hastily.

*          *          *

Brennan took the call when it came in from the distaff half of Mutant X. Jesse was working at the kitchen table with Tom, trying patiently to review the basics of algebra and single variable equations, and Brennan could see the wheels turning in Tess's head: _how do I get closer to Jesse? If I start flunking math, will he pay that kind of attention to me?_ Tom, on the other hand, now had _two_ reasons to despise Jesse: Tess, and basic algebra which Jesse understood and Tom didn't. Ernest retreated to his room where his computer lived. He'd already completed his homework and two extra credit projects and was now working on eliminating all of his opponents on _Havoc OnLine_! The whole inter-personal relationship thing between Jesse, Tom, and Tess looked like a melt-down waiting to happen, and Ernest had no intention of being in the fall-out zone. He'd invited Brennan to escape as well, but Brennan, a glutton for punishment, stuck it out in hopes that he could prevent the inevitable disaster from occurring.

"Hey, Brennan," Shalimar greeted him over the comm. link. "You two enjoying yourselves out there in the quiet countryside? Getting some rest? Your arm better?"

"Sure thing." Brennan kept the sarcasm to a minimum. Shalimar didn't deserve it. "I hope you guys have cleared up Sanctuary, 'cause I'd sure appreciate a little back-up out here."

"What's the matter, can't handle a couple of kids and an old lady?" Lexa put in.

"You've met these kids, and you can ask that?" Brennan shot back, sarcastic restraint forgotten. "Get real, Lex." He swiftly changed the subject. "You figured out what's been going on back there?"

Shalimar looked at Lexa. Lexa looked at Shalimar, and shrugged.

"We think so," Lexa temporized. "At least, we think we've stopped it. We identified who we think is the responsible party, and removed her from the equation."

Brennan winced. "Please don't use the word 'equation' around here. Tom's not doing so hot with algebra, and I'm worried that Jesse's going to actually lose his cool with the kid. And that's before we deal with Tess. So who was it, and how did she get a smoke cloud into Sanctuary that shot lightening bolts?"

Another exchange of sheepish looks. "It's going to be a little difficult to ask her," Shalimar said. "She's in ICU, unconscious."

"Great," Brennan grumbled, and there no mistaking the sarcasm this go-around. "Then asking about the snake will be equally impossible. Too bad, because she's been doing the same thing with lizards over here."

There was a sudden quiet over the comm. link. Then—"What did you say, Brennan?"

Brennan repeated his statement, filling them in on the morning's happenings. "But at least you guys put a stop to it."

Dead silence.

"Uh—you guys did put a stop to it. Didn't you?"

It was Shalimar's unhappy voice that he heard next. "Brennan, Karen Allbright was three hundred miles away when you fried your black specter."

More silence. Once again it was Brennan who broke it.

"Uh—you guys are coming out here real soon. Right?"


	3. Nightmares3

If she'd ever wanted to become a parent, Lexa thought, then this little slice of life had cured her of that thought but good.

Shalimar and she walked in just before the evening meal—Lady Esther was a _great_ cook—and things had deteriorated from there. Lexa simply sat back in the corner of the room, watching everything transpire and grateful that she wasn't a major player.

Tess was still pursuing Jesse with a vengeance. She developed a sudden need for close supervision of her history report, and nobody but Jesse would do. They were stationed on the sofa; Jesse would inch away to the left, and Tess would snuggle up close. Lexa estimated that by eight o'clock Jesse would be falling off the far edge of the sofa, and wouldn't that be amusing? _Whoa, girl, down! Jealous of a fourteen year old? Get hold of yourself; you don't feel that way about Jesse, _do you_?_

This activity hadn't gone unnoticed by Tom. Sullen had given way to smoldering, and the fifteen year old was out for revenge. He retaliated by trying to put the moves on Shalimar, trying to elicit some sort of jealous response from Tess. It hadn't been working. Tess was too wrapped up in hero-worship to pay attention, and a fifteen year old was no match for feral avoidance tactics. That made Tom even angrier.

From what Lexa had been able to gather, this had been going on since the guys had arrived yesterday. Hormones, she groaned silently to herself. She wouldn't go through that period of life again for several million bucks studded with diamonds. How did Lady Esther put up with it? She must be a saint.

Or just very, very wise not to interfere. Lexa caught the gray-haired woman with wire-rimmed blue eyes twinkling at the tableau as she darned socks. That too amazed Lexa; who the heck darned socks any more? Just go out and buy a few more pairs.

Brennan got the best of the situation. Ernest was indoctrinating him into the latest version of _Havoc OnLine!,_ and the pair were busily engaged in demolishing gnomes, wyverns, and the occasional golem. The speakers emitted simulated cries of distress as the various combatants puffed into electronic non-existence, Brennan even managing not to wince when some of them sounded entirely too realistic for comfort. _Fun when it's a game, buddy, but not in real life._

Ernest had moved beyond that concept. "You gotta avoid these cloud things," he told Brennan solemnly. "They're called will o' wisps. They shoot lightening bolts and stuff. If they get you, they kill your guy. Then you gotta start over again. Tom's hero in this game is a warlock, so he likes munching on 'em, but most of us just kinda move around and head for the next level."

"Right." Brennan nodded in understanding.

"They're not too hard to avoid," Ernest further instructed. "All you have to do is move away from them. They're pretty slow, so buy some speed for your guy next town we get to. As long as you don't get within range of their lightning bolts, you're okay."

Lexa could tell that something was bothering Brennan just by the way he held his shoulders. She was right. "Hey, Shal, Lexa," he called oh-so-casually. "Take a look at what Ernest has on the computer. Remind you of anything?"

It did. The will o' wisp that Ernest was steering around was a large black smoke cloud with little sparks looming ominously around it. On the screen it looked small and relatively innocuous, unless you were the hero of the game.

In real life it had looked a hell of a lot bigger.

*          *          *

Lady Esther came back down the stairs after tucking Ernest in and seeing that Tess and Tom were at least in bed, listening to music if not actively seeking sleep. She plopped herself down into the easy chair, lifting the foot rest. She leaned back with a contented smile. "Quite a handful Adam saddled me with, wouldn't you say?"

"Don't know how you do it," Brennan said honestly. "I know I was a mess at that age. I don't know how you manage three of them."

"Children have to grow up somehow," Lady Esther told him. "All three had to cope with some horrific things in the last year or so. Now it's time for them to learn about the nicer parts of childhood."

"I wouldn't call this jealousy thing one of the nice parts," Jesse grumbled, and yawned.

"Ah, but I would." Lady Esther wagged her finger at him. "Don't underestimate the power of young love. You ought to be flattered, Mr. Kilmartin, that Tess has chosen you to fixate on. It means that she instinctively trusts you not to take advantage of that love. That you will provide the self-control for both of you."

"And Tom?" Shalimar put in.

"Yes, that young man." Esther smiled a secret smile. "Remember, ladies and gentlemen, Tom is a psionic. Tess keeps him under control with a daily psionic drain, but that doesn't mean that he cannot use his powers. Don't underestimate that young man. He knows exactly what is going on. And he is closer to Tess than any living being."

"And what does that mean?" Lexa asked.

"We'll have to find out, won't we?" And Lexa recalled that Lady Esther herself was a psionic, though with very limited abilities. Lady Esther gathered up her things. "I'm off to bed. I'll leave you young people to talk amongst yourselves. Just don't get too loud. Tess in particular is a light sleeper."

Lexa watched her hostess disappear up the stairs before turning to the others. "I notice that the two of you haven't said much about your ghostly visitor of this morning," she commented. "The kids are no longer around to scare. Give."

"Not much to tell," Jesse gave back. He yawned again. "Frankly, Lexa, I'm not even certain it was human, mutant or otherwise. It was a man-sized black robe with a hood that shot some kind of energy bolt. When Brennan shot back, it shattered and disappeared. That doesn't sound human."

"But you think you destroyed him?" Shalimar pushed. "Or it, or whatever?"

"Probably," Brennan said, flexing his stiff arm. "We couldn't find anything more of it afterward." He had given up the sling, and was now gradually increasing the usage that he put his arm through. Another day, he thought, and he'd barely remember that he'd been knifed. Life goes on. "It's gone, we couldn't find any trace of it, and it hasn't come back. That says 'destroyed' to me."

"But we don't have a lot to go on," Jesse allowed.

"Could it have been the cause of those rainbow lizard flocks you saw?"

"Makes sense," Jesse agreed, trying not to yawn yet again. "If we go a couple of nights without them, I'll buy into that theory. Maybe we've cured what's going on in this house with one easy Brennan whammy."

"It couldn't be that easy," was Shalimar's opinion.

"I agree with Shalimar. She and I will take shifts tonight," Lexa decided. "That way we can be in on the beginning of whatever's causing this place to seem haunted. If it shows up again, we can track it down and destroy it from the start. We'll be done with it."

"Hey, wait a minute. What about me?"

"You, Brennan," and Shalimar fixed him with a determined eye, "are recuperating from a knife fight that nearly turned you into two people."  
            "I'm not taking the pain-killers anymore. I can stay up and do my share."

"No, you can't." Shalimar wasn't having any of it. "And you, Jesse Kilmartin, look like death warmed over. Get any sleep last night?"

"Yeah, I—"

"—woke up after an hour with nightmares again," Brennan put in. "Sorry, buddy, but misery loves company. Face it, Jess; you haven't slept right for almost a week now. Why don't you pop a couple of my pain-killers? You've seen them work on me. Puts you out like a light."

"I don't know…"

"Do it," Lexa advised. "You're not functioning on all cylinders, Jesse. You need some uninterrupted sleep."

"Well…"

"Do we have to pour them down your throat?" Shalimar put her arm around the molecular's shoulders, big-sister fashion. "Listen to your loving teammates. You've been yawning all night long."

Jesse shrugged, a lop-sided smile on his face. "Look, I'll make you a deal. If I wake up, I'll take a couple." He grinned. "Besides, a late night snack would taste a lot better."

*          *          *

"Shalimar."

The feral came awake in a flash. The hushed whisper kept her from leaping out of bed, but she was ready to go into battle, should it be needed.

It wasn't.

Lexa sat on the bed opposite, Lady Esther beside her, waiting for Shalimar to toss the bed covers away. Shalimar belted a short robe around her waist, tucking slender legs underneath her and pushing her mop of ringlets back over her head. "What time is it?"

"Three-ish," Lexa told her. "I was just about to get you up for your shift when I found Lady Esther wandering."

"I was not wandering," Lady Esther corrected. "This is my own house. I go where I please, when I please. And right now it pleases me to check out both Tom and Ernest. There's a little mental tickle going on that I've learned not to ignore, and right now it's telling me to check on both my boys. Coming?" What Lady Esther left unsaid was the desire to have both Lexa and Shalimar as her troops to defend the boys from whatever was present in the house. Both women trotted after Lady Esther, heading upstairs to the attic level of the large abode. All three children had been enchanted by the idea of bedrooms on the third floor of the old house, fighting over the largest room; Tess won.

The stairs creaked on the way up, and both Shalimar and Lexa winced, although Lady Esther trekked onward without so much as a shiver. She was used to the noise and barely heard it. The first stop was Tom's room. Lady Esther gently pushed open the door.

It reminded Lexa of her own brother's room at that age, cluttered with posters of obscure and not so obscure bands tacked haphazardly over the walls. The desk was covered with papers and dirty socks, several of which had spilled off onto the floor. A book bag sat in the center of the room, hanging open with several dog-eared texts pretending to hide inside.

Tom himself was sprawled across his bed, covers awry, his arm flung across his face. He was clearly having dreams; he was muttering too quietly to be understood but the anger at the dream-people was evident on his features. Frowns and snarls flitted across his face, then vanished to move on to a victorious smile. He groaned in his sleep, and turned over so that his countenance was no longer visible.

"Nothing here," Shalimar said quietly. "Shall we move on?"

Lady Esther halted her with a gentle hand on the feral's arm. "Can't you see it?"

"See what?" Shalimar automatically narrowed her eyes, switching to feral vision. There was nothing to be seen. Tom slept restlessly, his breathing shallow, eyes darting back and forth under closed eyelids. "What do you see?"

"A stream of psychic energy," Lady Esther said. "No, not a stream—a river. He's overflowing with it."

"Doesn't that make sense?" Lexa asked. "I mean, he is a psionic, and a powerful one."

"It means that Tess isn't able to keep up with him," Lady Esther informed her quietly, not masking her concern. "He doesn't pour out this level of psychic flow during the day. Tess usually drains him early in the morning, just before school. This amount of psionic energy is being built up during the day, and is spilling over at night when he and everyone around him is asleep and vulnerable. Those dreams he's experiencing; what if he should inflict them on someone else?"

"That would not be good." Shalimar remembered very well coming in contact with Tom's powers only a few months previously. Tom's internal neural inhibitor had been first burned by Lexa and then forcibly removed by Jesse under the influence of Tess and Ernest's mad scientist father and his collar device, and the result had been a flood of psychic influences that had nearly driven them all mad. As it was, Absalom Maguire—who was at the epicenter of Tom's nightmares—was driven incurably insane since that time. The rest of Mutant X, trying to escape from a short distance away, had had to contend with the leftovers of Tom's nightmares for the next several weeks until the memories faded, and not one of them wanted to go through that again. No, an out of control Tom was a thing to be avoided at all costs.

Lexa, ever practical, asked, "where is this river going?"

"Next door," Lady Esther replied grimly. "Ernest's room."

If Tom's room had been the typical teen-ager's hangout, then Ernest's was a techie-nerd's dream. There was the obligatory bed, but that was stashed away in the corner as inconsequential, making room for the computer on the desk and it was clear that the computer was where Ernest spent most of his free time. The other hard sciences weren't forgotten: the night stand served as a workbench for a miniature chem. lab, and a plastic model of the human body danced upon the bureau. Instead of the band posters that Tom favored, Ernest had invested in a large scale drawing of the periodic table and a blown up version of the galaxy according to the Hubble telescope.

But none of that interested the three. What was far more fascinating were the tiny rainbow lizards that were growing from Ernest's fingertips. The things were a scant four inches long from nose to tail, and they skittered under the bed and away into the walls as soon as they budded off from Ernest. The eleven year old slept through the process, merely turning over in his sleep. The rainbow colored lizards crawled around him and over him and away from him.

"What the hell is that?" Shalimar whispered, repulsed.

"The result of a psychic influence," Lady Esther replied grimly. "I can see Tom's river flowing directly into him. Ernest has a fear of snakes and lizards; I suspect his father used to torture the child into doing his wishes by subjecting Ernest to their presence. These lizards are an outgrowth of Ernest's nightmares. The pleasant colors are no doubt his attempt to cope with his distaste."

"I'd heard of this in theory, back in the Genomex think tanks," Lexa amplified, "but I never thought I'd see it in real life. Tom's nightmare's are affecting Ernest. Ernest, being a molecular with the power over molecules, is actually rearranging those molecules into little tiny lizards. No wonder we couldn't find a nest in the house. There was no nest; Ernest was creating a new flock of them every night." She looked up at the other two. "Ernest isn't the only molecular in the household any more."

"Let's go check on Jesse," Shalimar said, dread in her voice.

The trio descended to the second floor where the guest bedrooms joined Lady Esther's own suite off of the same hallway. Lady Esther shook her head. "The psychic river," she said, "flowing down here is even stronger, if anything. And it flows into the gentlemen's room."

"I think we'd better go very carefully on this one," Lexa cautioned. "I've got a bad feeling. Hear anything, Shal?"

The feral shook her head. "Not a sound. Nothing but breathing." She listened again, her face going grim. "Too many people breathing. There should only be two people in that room. I hear three." She motioned for Lady Esther to move to the side and out of the way. "I'll open. You be ready to throw something lethal. On three: one…two…three." Shalimar flung open the door and sprang inside.

Brennan was sleeping soundly, though that changed when the door banged open. His prior position was one of complete ease, sprawled across the bed with the covers only half over him. Shalimar was treated to a broad expanse of bare chest gently rising and falling with the even regularity of sleep. That condition vanished in the heartbeat immediately following the banging of the door against the wall, the sound echoing in the small room like a gunshot. Brennan leaped out of bed in one fluid movement, a lethal lightning bolt already twisting between his fingers.

Which was a good thing, because the equally lethal bolt of light that Lexa treated their unwanted guest to had little to no effect on the specter. Though the jolt lit up the room, the black-robed figure soaked up the light like a black hole drinking from the well of the universe. It stood next to Jesse's bed, looking down on the sleeping molecular and leering.

Lexa's flash also illuminated the figure's face. All three mutants gasped as the features became clear: Absalom Maguire! Tess and Ernest's father, the one who was irredeemably insane, who was safely incarcerated in the Bush Rehabilitation Center. The same man who had tortured each member of Mutant X and his own children in a monstrous attempt to take over the world. The same one with so little mind left that he was incapable of feeding himself. How could he be here?

The lightning bolt that left Brennan's fingertips had an extra boost behind it, that boost fueled by fear. He remembered all too well the collar device that Maguire had devised, the collar that forced a mutant to function at a level far beyond human endurance and destroyed the mutant in the process. Maguire had used that device on Brennan himself, and Lexa and Shalimar had also felt the agony that it inflicted.

But Jesse had been Maguire's special project, Jesse and Ernest: the moleculars. With their powers, Maguire had dreamed of transforming the world. It had only been through the heroism of Mutant X and the children, and the slimmest margin of luck, that all had escaped intact with only nightmares to haunt them.

And that nightmare was growing out of Jesse Kilmartin.

Exactly as the lizards had budded off of Ernest's fingers, so too was the malevolent specter that wore Maguire's face. The creature grew, drawing its substance from the sleeping molecular. Brennan hurled jolt after jolt at it, Lexa striking in between.

The black-hooded specter only laughed at them, but the sheer volume of energy drove it back and away from Jesse. It sent one of its own charges streaming at Brennan, and Shalimar tackled the elemental to take him down to the floor before the charge fried him. With a final high-pitched giggle, the figure poured itself out through the window, flowing out into the night's shadows in an entirely inhuman fashion.

Shalimar ran to the window. "It's gone!" She turned back, her face white with terror. "That couldn't have been Maguire!"

"Then what the hell was it?" Lexa asked harshly.

"Nothing human," Brennan said, picking himself up off of the floor. "Thanks, Shal."

"It was the substance from which nightmares are created," Lady Esther told them. "You would probably put it into more scientific terms. Where young Ernest is terrified of lizards, you have just seen what has been haunting Mr. Kilmartin's mind at night. Wake him up swiftly, before that thing comes back."

"How can he have slept through this?" Lexa asked with annoyance. The man continued to slumber, breathing in and out with unfeigned regularity. There was no sign of waking up. "Jesse can't have been that tired. Did he take any of your pain-killers, Brennan?"

The elemental looked sheepish. "Sort of."

"Sort of?"

"I mean…" Brennan searched for a way to explain. "Jesse's been going through a lot. And you heard him, downstairs; he wasn't going to take anything. So I… kind of… slipped a couple of powdered ones onto his ice cream." He gestured to the still sleeping molecular. "It worked."

"Um… Brennan?"

"Yes, Shalimar?"

"Me, too."

"Oops. Two?"

"Two."

"Total of four pills." The pair looked at Lexa.

"Don't look at me," Lexa exclaimed. "Drugging a team mate, even for his own good?"

"Don't tell me you've never done that, Lexa. You're worse than any of us. You'd knock us silly if you thought it was best."

"Are you accusing me of—"

"How many, Lexa?" Brennan asked. "Shall I count the pills left in the bottle?"

Lexa let her shoulders slump. "Three. He's a strong guy," she protested. "How was I supposed to know that you two would pull the same stunt?"

"The same stupid stunt," Brennan clarified. He shook his team mate. "Jesse! Jesse, wake up, man."

"Wha—?"

Brennan set his jaw. "We can't afford for that thing to come back. We can either wake up Jesse, or Tom. And Tom has a math test tomorrow. Jesse, it is. Time for harsher measures." He rubbed his fingers together. Sparks flew, and Brennan aimed them to where they'd be the most effective.

"Yow!" Jesse leapt up out of the bed, clutching his pants so that they didn't fall down over narrow hips. "What was that for?" He realized that he was the center of attention for three ladies as well, and reddened. "What's going on?"

"Maguire came to visit," Brennan told him grimly.

"Maguire? That's impossible! The man's safely locked up in an insane asylum." Jesse hitched his pants up again. And sat down suddenly with a slightly shocked expression, his knees giving out from underneath him. He blinked. "Why do I feel like the room is spinning out of control?"

"Because we fed you drugs last night," Lexa informed him waspishly. "All of us. Get over it."

"I think a nice pot of coffee would be a wise choice right now," Lady Esther said calmly. "I suspect there is a great deal of discussion that will be needed between now and when the children wake up." She headed for the door. "Come down when you're presentable, gentlemen."

Jesse stood up again and grabbed for his tee shirt, then hurriedly grabbed at his pants which were trying to make their own escape. "Do you mind?"

Lexa exchanged a certain look with Shalimar. "Let's sweep the house, Shalimar. Just in case that thing is trying to make a return."

*          *          *

Jesse sat down at the kitchen table a little faster than he'd planned. The smell of coffee was anything but enticing, and he held his head in his hands, wishing that the refrigerator and the stove would stop changing positions. And that the light above the kitchen table would stop whirling around in frantic figure eights. He swallowed hard.

Brennan did the talking for him. "So what was that thing? It sure looked like Maguire. But Absalom Maguire is not getting out of the funny farm any time soon, so what was it?"

Lexa set down her mug. "Shalimar and I think it was a psionically-induced pseudo version of Absalom Maguire, brought on by exposure to a very under-controlled and over-powerful psionic. Lady Esther agrees with us."

"I'm not handling three syllable words right now," Jesse informed them, eyes closed. That was a good thing; The earlier version of his eyes that Brennan had seen just moments ago included terms like 'blood-shot' and 'red-rimmed.' "Catch me in the morning."

"It is morning," Shalimar said sympathetically, "just very early in the morning. Drink your coffee."

"You want me to throw up?" But Jesse sipped at the strong brew gingerly, shuddering.

"It makes sense, if you look at it." Lexa moved on, ignoring her team mate's distress. "What's going on in this house is actually similar to what Maguire was trying to do, creating things using super-charged moleculars. He super-charged Jesse and Ernest using both technology and the powers of psionics in a weird kind of a mutant circuitry. Genomex had made a couple of half-hearted forays into this type of research almost a decade ago—I think Adam even led one of those attempts, with his passion for teamwork—but nothing looked promising. They eventually gave it up, and put their resources into other projects. And fired Maguire."

"I guess Genomex didn't use the right researchers," Brennan said sarcastically. "Tom seems to be doing a fine job all by himself, without even a high school diploma. Just goes to show how over-rated a PhD is. Lizards from Ernest, a psuedo-Maguire from Jesse here. What next?"

"May I suggest we not wait to find out?" Lexa's sarcasm was just as pointed as Brennan's.

"Good plan." Shalimar tried to get things back on track. "But how do we go about breaking this link? How do we get Tom to shut down? Do we tell Tess to do a major psionic vampire drain on him?"

"That's a stop gap measure," was Lady Esther's opinion. "Remember, these are children. Very powerful children, but children none the less. We need a permanent solution, or this scenario will be repeated in a matter of months."

Lexa thought for several long moments. "Before Maguire got his hands on Tom, Tom had had a neural inhibitor in him to prevent fall out from his exceptional mental abilities. Maybe he needs another one. Maguire got Jesse and I to burn it out; who put it there in the first place?"

They all looked at each other. Jesse snored.

Brennan shook him roughly. "Wake up."

"Huh?"

"C'mon, Jesse; you're a part of this. Stay awake."

"Right. Awake. I'm awake."

"I would not let Mr. Kilmartin fall asleep again," Lady Esther advised. "In fact, I recommend not letting either he nor Tom sleep at the same time. Tom is sleeping now, and the psychic river is flowing. I can see it; it is streaming through this kitchen into Mr. Kilmartin."

Mutant X automatically looked, but there was nothing to be seen. Not one of them considered doubting the elderly psionic, however. If Lady Esther said it was there, then it was. Which meant that they needed to deal with it.

"How about getting Tom up instead?" Brennan suggested. "Jesse's a little out of it right now."

"Not practical," Lady Esther informed him. "Tom can _appear_ awake while showering, eating, and attending class. His psionic river will flow at any and all times; while he is daydreaming, for example. Which means that Mr. Kilmartin is in danger of producing that spectral being whenever he sleeps and Tom…I believe the terminology those young people use today is 'zone out.' I recommend that Mr. Kilmartin himself sleep only immediately after Tess psionically drains Tom in the morning. And there is one more highly important reason that we not wake Tom at this time."

"Oh? What is it?"

"Tom has a math test in three hours," Lady Esther informed them tartly. "And he needs a passing grade very desperately."


	4. Nightmares 4

"C'mon, Jess, just a little while longer," Brennan said, pulling Jesse's arm more securely over his broad shoulders and keeping him on his unsteady feet. They had already worn a path between the parlor and the kitchen, and Brennan was considering taking the molecular outside for some fresh early morning air. The staircase to the bedrooms was out of the question. "Keep walking. The kids'll be up soon. You can go to sleep as soon as Tess drains Tom."

Jesse's reply was unprintable.

"You gotta stay awake, man. Gotta keep that thing away. Tom'll be waking up before too long."

Shalimar approached, another steaming mug in her hands. "Here, Jesse. More coffee. Black. Just what you need."

Jesse gagged, and tried to pull away, but Brennan wouldn't let him. "Gaah! That's hot!"

"Another sip." Shalimar pushed it at him again. "Keep going. The caffeine will help you stay awake."

"If I take another sip," and Jesse was working very hard to keep his words distinct, "I am going to throw up."

"We'll make Lexa clean up," Shalimar promised. "After all, she slipped you three pills. Brennan and I only gave you two a piece."

"Go ahead, turn on me," Lexa grumbled. "And here I have the answer to our dilemma."

Brennan stopped forcing Jesse to walk. "Which is—?"

"Lady Esther gave me the idea. We find out who put the original inhibitor into Tom, and get him or her to do it again."

Brennan slapped his forehead dramatically with his free hand. "Brilliant! What a clever idea! Why didn't I think of that?" _Pause for effect_. "Wait. I did. Only there's no way to find out who did it. Tom was a baby when it was done, and the only other person who might know is giggling to himself in the key of H."

"Does the Dominion know?" Shalimar asked.

Lexa shook her head. "Just got the answer back: no. Tom had never even appeared on their radar until Maguire dragged him into the spotlight. There are some rogue efforts out there, and the Dominion is still trying to track them down."

"But you _do_ have a way to find out who developed Tom's inhibitor?" Shalimar pressed. Lexa wouldn't have brought the subject up if she hadn't.

"Yup. How do you find out something from somebody who can't speak coherently?" Lexa moved to answer herself. "You get a telepath. Let's see; do we know any telepaths?" She slapped her forehead, deliberately mimicking Brennan. "Gosh, yes! We know Tom!"

"Are you crazy?" Brennan demanded, appalled. "Maguire almost killed him! He tortured him, Lexa! And you want a fifteen year old kid to face the man who did that to him? You're as crazy as Maguire!"

"Am I?" All attempts at humor had fled. "Let's look at this situation realistically, Brennan, in all its horror. What we have now is a telepath out of control. And it's not just local. Remember what happened at Sanctuary? Your cloud thing, and Shalimar's cobra? Those came from our Jesse here, and long distance. Tom is well aware of Tess's infatuation with Jesse; he can't help but be. So he is going to unconsciously take out his anger on Jesse, which means every time Jesse takes a nap something ugly is going to be produced.

"Lady Esther was right; we need a permanent solution. Getting Tess to drain Tom more thoroughly isn't it. Tess doesn't need any more psychic charge, and we can't overflow her either or we'll end up with two dangerous telepaths. There's only one real answer: we need to shut Tom down. Permanently."

"And how do you propose to do that?" Brennan's voice held a dangerous note. "Kill him?"

"That's an option." Lexa was unfazed. 

"No, it's not," Shalimar said. "Find an alternative."

"I did. You just heard it, and Tom will too after he gets home from school and that damn math test. Tom knows what's at stake here: his life. He may not admit it, but he knows, and so does Lady Esther. He either finds a way to control his gift, or it will kill him and several other people with him." Lexa stared each of them down. "We'll do it this afternoon. I'll take Tom and get him in to see Maguire. Tom will probe his mind and find the answer. While we're doing that, the rest of you can track down this fake Maguire and dispose of it." She gestured at Jesse, hiding her concern under a deliberate pose of annoyance. Brennan hurriedly jerked the almost asleep molecular upright again and Jesse grunted disappointedly. "And, for all our sakes, don't let him fall asleep until Tom gets up."

*          *          *

"You could let me drive," Tom suggested persuasively.

Lexa favored the teen-age psionic with a withering glance before turning her attention back to the road. The spring air was warm and inviting, and she had the top of the convertible down, letting the wind blow through her long hair. Lexa was well aware of the picture she made; several of the men she'd been with over the last couple of years had insisted on discussing it with her. The country road was long and empty, and invited her to speed. "You're fifteen."

"Your point?"

"No driver's license." Lexa wouldn't budge.

That didn't stop Tom. They were in Brennan's red speedster, and the kid's tongue was hanging out of his mouth, drooling. "There's nobody around. Nobody would know."

"I would. And so would Brennan, once you crunched his car."

"I'm a good driver," Tom protested.

"Really? When was the last time you drove?"

That stopped Tom, but only for a few moments. "How about after we see old crazy man Maguire? Like a reward, or something, for good behavior? I mean, I think I aced the math exam today. I deserve something."

_More points on the sainthood list for Lady Esther_, Lexa thought. _How does she put up with this all the time?_ "Yeah, Tom. I deserve a life on the Riviera, basking in the sun with waiters bringing me daiquiris. You deserve to live a normal life. In fact, you deserve to live, period. Unfortunately, we don't always get what we deserve."

That sobered the kid, and Lexa felt guilty for squashing him like that. He slumped in the passenger's seat, staring out the window.

Lexa bit her lip. _I'm gonna regret this_. "Listen, you're right. We get out of this okay, I'll take you driving. Somewhere private, where nobody can interfere. I'll see about getting us a car that makes this thing look like a piece of tinfoil." _After all, Eduardo owes me a big favor. And he has a garage filled with the fastest things on four wheels_.

"Nah. That's okay."

_Kids.__ Can't stand 'em. Good thing I'm never going to have any. Was I ever that bad growing up?_

_I don't want to know_.

The Bush Rehabilitation Center—a euphemism for the Prison for the Seriously Whacked Out Murdering Types—was well-guarded and surrounded by thick and tall stone walls. There were towers at each of the four corners, and a man with a long range rifle stationed in each tower. Bushes softened the walls, but there was no doubt that this facility was designed to be a fortress to keep people in.

Lexa surveyed the terrain, looking for the easiest way to gain access. Tom stayed quietly at her side, trusting that she could do what she said that she could do.

Lexa sighed. Time to move. "Take my hand," she told him.

"Why?"

"You want to be seen?" She grabbed Tom's hand, and they vanished from view.

This was going to be a long session. Lexa slipped them in through the gates unseen, allowing herself a brief respite by turning them visible again but still unnoticed in the bushes. Another few moments of invisibility, and they were past the courtyard into the building itself.

Lexa slipped a lock pick out of her pocket, and had them into a closet in a bare minute. A guard walked by, unseeing.

"Cool," Tom breathed. "Where'd you learn to do that?"

Lexa barely spared him a glance. "Misspent youth."  
            "Can you teach me?"

"No." She shoved a uniform at him. "Put that on."

"It doesn't fit."

"Tough. Put it on anyway."  
            "Why?"

"How about to avoid getting caught, and spending the rest of our own days in pleasant surroundings like this? Put it on, and hurry up about it." Lexa wound up her long dark hair and pushed it in under the cap that she'd found. Not perfect, but it would do for walking down long corridors.

Only one piece left: an ID card. It was those very cards that let the guards move from one hall to the next through electronically-locked gates. Cautioning Tom to wait in the closet, she went invisible and lifted one from the nearby locker room. Its owner would never miss it unless someone went searching through the computer logs as to why he—one Bartholomew Givens—was visiting the prisoners in Cell Block C on his day off.

It worked. Invisible Lexa had to pull invisible Tom back out of the path of the uniformed guards three times, but they made it to Cell Block C without being detected. The worst part was keeping Tom from making noise. Light Lexa could control, but if the teen-ager laughed out loud, the game would be over. And, despite the gravity of the situation, Tom was finding the whole mission to be incredibly exhilarating. _Was I ever that stupid as a teen-ager?_ Lexa was suddenly afraid that she had been.

He sobered once they found Absalom Maguire. The teen-age high of putting one over on the authorities vanished into a terrified kid, facing the perpetrator of the worst episode of his life, with the knowledge that if Tom couldn't discover who and how the neural inhibitor had been implanted in his brain, death was the only likely possibility for him. _You made that real clear to him, Lexa. You're such a sweetheart. No wonder no one dares get too close to you._

Maguire was a wreck. The last time Lexa had faced the man, he had been small but strong in his own sense of self. The white hair was still there, flowing backwards in a bad imitation of Einstein, but the prison kept it clipped short. Likewise, the facial burns, a leftover from Mutant X's first encounter with him, stood out like a sore thumb against the white-haired backdrop.

But where Maguire had stood straight and proud, there now was a stooped over old man, doddering on his feet, mumbling incoherently to himself in words that only he could understand. _Or maybe Adam could_, Lexa thought, _if he were still alive_. Some of the phrases had a suspiciously scientific flavor to them. She wondered if they even made sense.

Lexa ran the ID card through the electronic lock and swung open the door, still keeping the pair invisible. Maguire took no notice of the door apparently opening by itself.

Tom hung back, suddenly afraid.

"C'mon," Lexa hissed. "He can't hurt you."

Still Tom hesitated. Lexa grabbed his arm, pulling him in. 

Tom began to shake, turning white. Fear was naked on his face, features that only Lexa could see in this invisible state. "I can't do this."

"Yes, you can," Lexa insisted. _What a time for this to happen!_ "Hurry up! We don't have much time." She tossed a cloth over the security camera high over the door, making it look as though Maguire himself had done it, hoping that it was a fairly common occurrence, and that the guards would take their time in investigating. Inspiration hit: she turned them visible again, then grabbed Tom to turn him to face her. "This is the bastard that started this whole mess," she snarled. "This is the piece of crap that hurt you. And this is the man who hurt Tess. Are you going to let him get away with that?"

"But…"

"Get angry, Tom," she advised him harshly. "Get mad. He hurt you; he hurt Tess. He's hurting you right now, by making you have those nightmares that turn real! And you have the power to stop him from ever doing that again. Dig in his mind, Tom. What the hell did he do?"

A fire lit in Tom's brown eyes. Setting his jaw he took Maguire by the shoulders, forcing the head up to look deep into the old man's rheumy and unseeing eyes.

Lexa could almost see the psychic link snap into place; she had no doubt that Lady Esther would have. Maguire began to whimper, tears leaking down his wrinkled visage, shaking in terror as Tom revisited the horror that Maguire had done.

It took a full five minutes. Lexa was getting nervous; surely the guards would come to investigate any moment. But Tom straightened finally; Maguire slid to the floor.

Tom surveyed the wreck of the man with contempt. Lexa was amazed; in just those few moments Tom had gone from being a teen-aged brat to a man. She could see it in the way he stood, in the determined set of his shoulders. It was as if he'd taken a lesson in what not to do in life from the pile of steaming flesh in front of them.

"The knowledge that this man possessed," Tom said deliberately, "must never be allowed to fall into any one else's hands." He glanced over at Lexa, looking down at her from his near six foot height. "Let's go. I need a shower."

*          *          *

Brennan pulled into the driveway with Tess and Ernest, hoisting their book bags with one hand. "Now, remember what I said, guys: no pestering Jesse. He had a rough night. And you stay with Shalimar or me at all times, right?"

"Right," Ernest said. "Can I go on my computer? It's upstairs in my room."

"Don't see why not," Brennan allowed. After all, it was only when Jesse and Ernest were asleep that the trouble started. Although Brennan would have given a pretty penny to know what had happened to the spectral figure that had escaped last night. He was pretty sure that he and Lexa hadn't destroyed it. And that whole thought made him nervous.

The three of them had searched the house, then the neighborhood for the eerie figure, without a trace. Even Shalimar with her feral senses couldn't locate him, or it, or any sign of its passage through the walls of the guest room in Lady Esther's home. And the rainbow lizards too had vanished from sight, although Shalimar did see one scamper off under a rock in the next door neighbor's garden. It was Lexa's opinion that such creatures would probably be good for it, keeping the insect life under control. Or perhaps the things would vanish in the daylight, like the nightmares themselves. _We can only hope_.

Once Tom was safely off to school, Jesse had been allowed to sleep off his inadvertent sedation, and had woken up mid-afternoon with a hangover and a temper to match. After poking their noses in every fifteen minutes to check on his slumber earlier in the day—fearing that Tom might fall asleep in class out of boredom—the others quickly learned to leave Jesse alone to suffer in silence.

All except for Lexa. She plopped two white pills on the table in front of him, with a glass of water.

"What's this? Going to drug me again?"

"Aspirin," Lexa informed him. "Take it, or leave it. It's your choice."

Jesse surveyed the white tablets morosely. "Aspirin?"

"Guaranteed. This time."

"There's gonna be a next time?" But he tossed them back, chasing the pills with the contents of the glass before meandering to the living room to drop onto the sofa.

Shalimar stood up as Brennan herded the two Maguire children into the house and dumped the book bags onto the floor beside the umbrella stand. "Lexa and Tom get off okay?"

"Right on schedule," Brennan assured her. "They should get there in about half an hour."

"Good. Keys."

"Keys."

"Give. Tess and I are going shopping."

Brennan lifted his eyebrows. "At a time like this?"

"Especially at a time like this," Shalimar informed him. "I'm thinking that keeping a psionic vampire out of the mixture in this house is a great idea. Lady Esther agrees. Besides, Tess and I need to do some bonding."

Tess fixed the elemental with a gleam in her eye, seizing on the idea with glee. "Yeah. Bonding. Woman stuff."

"Lets me out." Brennan gave in immediately, tossing the keys through the air to Shalimar. She caught them without a blink. "I'll protect the home front."

*          *          *

Shalimar wondered how long it would take Tess to screw up her courage. It actually took quite a while; somewhere after purchasing the shoes and before the cropped halter top that Shalimar doubted that Lady Esther would let her wear but Shalimar got for her anyway. _Girl has to have some dreams_.

"Jesse's got a girl friend, doesn't he?"

Shalimar had been expecting something along those lines. "No. Not that I know of."

"Then it's me. He doesn't like me. I'm too geeky."

"He likes you fine, honey." Shalimar looked around for a spot that would be relatively private, and settled on the Starbucks. Busy, but few people who would listen to another conversation. Besides, it was inherently adult, something that would appeal to Tess's growing maturity. She sat them down and ordered two lattes. _How to bring Tess to reality, but not crush a young girl's dreams?_ "But you've got to understand, this isn't the life for deep romances. Besides, you already have a guy who's crazy about you."

"Who, Tom? He doesn't care. He just needs me to keep him sane."

_Truer words were never spoken, but only the last half of them_. "Tess, take another gander," Shalimar said with a smile. "That's not just an 'I need you' look Tom's giving you. That's an 'I _need_ you' look. That's the kind of look that guys get when they can't stand to be without you. The kind of sappy expression that comes when they think they might be losing you to somebody else who makes them look like a total waste of space."

Tess took a deep swig of her latte. "You ever have anybody like that?"

"Uh, yeah."

"What happened?"

Shalimar wished Tess hadn't asked. "He died."

Unfortunately, Tess missed the entire point. "Cool! How romantic! Are you pining away for him? Never gonna look at another man for as long as you live?"

Shalimar wished she'd never brought up the subject. "Life goes on, Tess. You learn to live with it."

Tess sighed. "I can't live without Tom. Literally. Who else is so strong that they can stand me taking a vampire hit off of them every single day?"

"True." Shalimar sat back in her chair, and took a sip of her latte. "Of course, he gets the same from you. If you ask me, it's a pretty good thing that he likes you so much."

"Yeah, but Jesse's cool! I mean, he's been to Italy! And he saves lives every day!"

"Not every single day," Shalimar smiled. "The rest of us do our share."

"Yeah, but I mean, he's even saved _my_ life! And he's got the dreamiest eyes."

_Okay, reality check time_. "Have you ever thought about what it would be like to be with him twenty-four seven?"

"That would be the greatest—"

"Worrying about whether he was alive or dead?" Shalimar broke in. "Worrying about all the psionic women out there who would be trying to brainwash him, just to get whatever they wanted? Knowing that he'd be away from you most of the time, on some secret project for the Dominion that he couldn't tell you about even if he wanted to?" That last was an exaggeration, but it would get the point across, and Tess wouldn't know the difference.

"I'd go with him," Tess said stoutly. "I could help."

"No, you couldn't," Shalimar told her gently. "You'd be in the way. Any time you were around, Jesse would worry about you and try to protect you. He'd get himself killed saving you." She paused to let that message sink in. "Look at when your father was trying to get at you and Ernest. Think of the last time; Jesse turned himself in to your father to save you from the collar. He sacrificed himself to save you. He's lucky to be alive. One of these times he's not going to be so lucky. Not everybody is."

Tess froze. "What do you mean?" She looked around, as if she could see everyone in the world. "Where's Adam? And Emma? Why hasn't she come?" 

Shalimar didn't need to say anything. Tears welled up in Tess's eyes, echoing the ache in Shalimar's heart. 

"Now do you see why Jesse doesn't want to get too close to anyone?" Shalimar asked gently. "He's afraid of losing them. We all are."

_Not the whole truth, but it would do for now, until Tess was older._

*          *          *

The two heads were pouring over the computer, killing off ogres and gnomes, looking so much like each other: both with sandy hair, both frantically tapping at the controls and shouting to each other. Brennan shook his head in mock dismay. An unknown evil menacing the household, and all Jesse and Ernest could do was to play computer games.

Brennan himself couldn't sit still. He worked off his worry by doing endless rounds of the house, searching for the black specter version of Absalom Maguire, waiting for Lexa and Tom to get back with an answer to this problem. Waiting wasn't something that he did well, and in this case practice wasn't making perfect. Even Lady Esther as an example wasn't working. She had long since finished making minor repairs to Tom's jeans and letting out the hem to Tess's one and only skirt that still fit and had moved on to the ever popular practice of baking cookies. Brennan had snatched a couple as he passed through the kitchen.

_Don't need a Stair-Master_, he grumbled silently to himself. _I'm getting plenty of exercise climbing the stairs to the third floor to check on Jesse and Ernest._ He wouldn't admit it to himself, but he was just as worried about Jesse as he was about Ernest. For the Maguire specter had shown plenty of interest in both moleculars. Changing the state of matter was something that Maguire had specialized in, and the pair possessed gifts that was right up Maguire's alley. Sure, Jesse seemed all right now, no worse the wear for the inadvertent over-dosing of last night, but Mutant X didn't have a particularly good track record when it came to these molecular creations.

He was grateful to Shalimar for taking Tess off their hands for a bit. The girl had virtually nothing to do with the mess that was taking place, and her infatuation with Jesse had become more than a bit awkward. It was a phase, but a difficult one since no one wanted to hurt her more than she'd already been hurt. The kid and her brother had been to hell and back. But Shalimar would know the right thing to do, the right thing to say. Cripes, couldn't Tess see that Tom was wild about her? What was _with_ teen-age girls?

Although in a way, Brennan could blame the whole mess on Tess. If Tess hadn't been so infatuated with Jesse, then Tom wouldn't have become wildly jealous. His psychic control wouldn't have eroded, and the link to both moleculars—first Ernest, then Jesse—wouldn't have occurred. And Brennan wouldn't be here, searching for a nightmare made solid.

But if Tess hadn't cared so much about Jesse in the first place, then Jesse and the rest of Mutant X might not be alive.

Too many 'if's'. Time to check on Lexa and Tom driving home from the Bush Rehabilitation Center. He thumbed his comm. ring. "Lexa?"

"Here. Has the specter re-appeared?"

"Not yet. Quiet as a tomb around here."

"Can't say that I care for your choice of descriptive phrases, Brennan."

Brennan ignored her complaint. "Your end?"

"Looking good. Got in and out without a problem."  
            "Tom?"

"He thinks he has what we need." Lexa stole a look at her passenger. Tom had been extraordinarily quiet since making their exit from the Bush Rehabilitation Center. His newfound maturity was still with him, and Lexa found it disconcerting to see within the fifteen year old. The bleak expression, too, scared her. And that from a woman who had seen too much to be easily scared. "We'll be home soon."

*          *          *

Tess trudged into the house, carrying her share of the purchases, and disappeared into her room, a grim and thoughtful expression on her own face. Brennan met Shalimar a the door after the girl moved past him almost unseeing. "Shal?"

"The heartbreak of young love," Shalimar said wistfully. "Tough at first. She'll get over it pretty fast. We talked for a long time." She sighed. "She's a smart kid. Smarter than I was at that age."

"She gonna get over Jesse?"

"Oh, yes. Like I said, she's smarter than I was." 

There was an odd note to Shalimar's voice, and Brennan caught it. "You reminiscing?"

"Yeah."

"Anybody I know?"

"You might say that." Shalimar smiled wistfully. "There were a few. Adam among them."

"Adam? Shal, he was older than you. Did he know?"

She grinned, a quick change of pace. "Probably. And was too smart to say anything about it to me at fourteen. I was a mess." She grinned again, a quick and mercurial flash. "Tell Jesse to be as smart as Adam."

"And Lady Esther," Brennan added, nodding toward the kitchen. "You think she knows?"

Shalimar furrowed her brows. "I'm beginning to think that that lady knows everything about her kids. She was the one who suggested that I take Tess shopping."

*          *          *

Everyone in the house was on edge as night approached. The nightmares would start again as soon as Tom and the moleculars fell asleep. Having the two sides on different sleep schedules was an unacceptable option—it was only a band-aid solution, and not a permanent fix. All knew that destroying the specter and then finding how to put another neural inhibitor into Tom's head was the only way that the patchwork family would survive. And Lady Esther would accept nothing less.

Tom remained reticent throughout the evening, refusing to talk about what he had learned from Tess and Ernest's father's insane thoughts. Lady Esther held them back from pushing; "That was a difficult thing for Tom to do. That was the man who tortured him, and who tortured you, Tess, as well as the rest of you. I suspect that he's found out things about his childhood, things that he'd forgotten but that Dr. Maguire kept records of. And I believe that a number of the horrible things that reside in Tom's brain came directly from Dr. Maguire." She clucked in commiseration. "Tom needs space. You need to give it to him."

"We need answers," Lexa disagreed. "That thing is coming back. We need to be prepared."

"And we will be." Lady Esther allowed her gaze to swing across the group. She lit upon Jesse. "_You_ speak to him, Mr. Kilmartin."

"Me?" Jesse was barely able to keep from yelping. _Me, the guy that Tom thinks is stealing his girl? Me, the guy his subconscious hates so much that he sends these realistic nightmares to remove me permanently from the playing field?_ Jesse carefully avoided looking at Tess. Lady Esther would know best. Adam had trusted her; Jesse and the rest of Mutant X needed to do the same. He swallowed hard. "Yes, ma'am."

*          *          *

There was no answer to Jesse's knock at the door. He tried again, then pushed his way in. "Tom?"

Tom wasn't lying on the bed, playing video games. Nor was he listening to CD's, or anything else that Jesse would have expected. Instead he was sitting on the edge of his bed, covers still rumpled from this morning, staring out through the window at the stars that had started to appear when the sun made it clear that the day was over. Tom hadn't turned the lights on. There was just enough moonlight to make out his tall and gangly shape.

"Tom?"

At first Jesse thought that Tom hadn't heard him, but no. "I should have known it would be you."

"What did you expect? You wouldn't talk to Lexa on the trip back. You want somebody else to talk to, besides me?" _Please, please let him want somebody else_.

Tom sighed. "No. I guess you're the right one."

_Shit. All right, get it over with_. "What did you learn from Maguire?"

"That basically I'm screwed."

Jesse tried to digest this. "Tom, it's not hopeless. Even if Maguire didn't have the answer we need, that doesn't mean that we quit. We have other ways to find out who developed the neural inhibitor, how they did it. Maguire wasn't the only one—"

"I found out how it can be done."

Jesse quietly pulled the desk chair around and sat on it backwards, more to give himself time to think of what to say than anything else. "And I take it that it's not going to be easy."

"Damn near impossible."

"Care to elaborate?"

Tom finally turned to stare at Jesse, and the molecular didn't like the bleak look in the psionic's eyes. "It's you or me, man."

There were times when silence was the best policy, and this was one of them. Jesse let his head rest on his arms on top of the back of the chair, waiting for Tom to continue.

It took a while, but Tom broke the silence. "It takes a molecular to build another neural inhibitor and put it inside my head."

"Keep going. We've got the molecular. What's the problem?"

"You know how to build a neural inhibitor?"

"I can learn. You get that info from Maguire's mind?"

"Yeah."

"Then what's the problem?"

"Takes a Maguire Collar, man."

Jesse felt his blood run cold, and he now understood why Tom was sitting here, alone, in the darkness of his room. The only place that he truly felt comfortable, safe, secure. 

Tom didn't remember his childhood. The earliest memories he had were of hospital rooms, and syringes, and adults in white coats forcing him to do things he didn't want to do. They were the ones who had given him the original neural inhibitor, a device that made all the horrible nightmares go away. At twelve he understood that they were trying to keep him alive, keep him sane, but then the people in white coats went away. They were replaced by Absalom Maguire. 

Maguire only saw Tom as a tool to be used in his quest for the proof of the ultimate genetic theory. And he didn't much care whether Tom remained sane or not. _Not,_ for Maguire, would probably have been preferable. Then Maguire wouldn't have had to put up the pretense of talking Tom into doing whatever it was that Maguire thought needed doing. And life pretty much went downhill from there. So much so that when Jesse first met Tom, both prisoners of Maguire, Tom had asked Jesse to end his misery on a permanent basis.

Fortunately for both of them, Jesse hadn't been in any position to comply. Jesse was forced to make things worse, to remove the neural inhibitor with his own molecular gift and nearly causing everyone around them to go insane along with Tom. It was only through the intervention of the rest of Mutant X that the catastrophe had been averted. 

And then Tess came along with her psionic vampire powers, needing Tom as much as he needed her. Each teen-ager acted as a check on each other, a balance, Jesse feared, that no longer applied.

Jesse tried to stay casual. "I seem to recall that the first time I met you, you were asking me to kill you. You've got to get over this death wish, Tom. It's getting boring."

Tom sighed. "How's this for not so boring? In order to save my life, we get to kill you with old CrazyHead Maguire's collar instead. And then Tess hates me because I killed the man she loves, assuming that I live through what you're going to do to me. And that's what Tess and I get to live with for the rest of our lives, tied to each other. Lose-lose situation, Jesse. Might as well cut our losses. Kill me, and make it quick and painless. I'd appreciate it."

Jesse remembered that collar. He remembered that collar very well, the black leather with the silver wires shot through it. He remembered doing things with his powers enhanced beyond all reason by that collar. And most of all, he remembered the sheer agony that the collar produced in Maguire's victims.

Tom remembered it, too. Tom had felt the vicious caress of the black leather, had felt his brains leaking out through his ears as Maguire dialed up the juice in an effort to obtain results. Time had dimmed the memory, but the specter had revived it with a vengeance.

But—"Need to find another way," Jesse said. "Aside from the obvious, we don't have a collar. Not necessarily a bad thing." A thought struck him. "I don't suppose you know how to build a collar?"

Tom laughed bitterly. "Yeah, I do. Pretty good for a kid's who's flunking math." He finally looked squarely at Jesse Kilmartin, the man his girl was in love with. "_Now_ you want to kill me?"


	5. Nightmares5

Brennan carefully didn't look at Lexa across the kitchen table. "I'm not so sure that asking the Dominion for help would be a good thing."

Lexa didn't have say anything. A mere lift of her brows conveyed her meaning elegantly: _Oh? Why not?_

Brennan was ready for her. "Do you really want the Dominion to be in control of a device as powerful as Maguire's collar? I don't know about you, Lexa, but I'm not completely certain of the Dominion's ultimate goal. Sure, they talk of the good of mankind, but I'm not convinced that they consider New Mutants to be part of mankind. And until I am, I'd just as soon keep them at arm's length." Now he did stare her down. "Can you live with that?"

It was late. Lady Esther had insisted that Tom and Tess go to bed, but Mutant X was holding a council of war. Ernest, with everyone afraid that Tom's psionic link would create more havoc, was allowed to pull an all-nighter playing _Havoc OnLine_. The eleven year old graciously acquiesced to his elders' concern with a heartfelt screech of "_Yes_!"

Lexa lifted her chin. "For now. And that's assuming that you can come up with a better plan, Brennan. What I'm seeing right now doesn't look promising. All we've got is a teen-ager with the power to make moleculars create lethal creatures during their sleep, one of which may be creeping around outside as we speak. Just how do you propose to handle this little crisis, Brennan?"

"I don't know." Brennan slumped on his chair. "But killing Tom isn't the answer. If Tom goes, so does Tess. What other mutant would be able to keep up with her psionic drain?"

"Look at the alternative," Lexa said. "Let's assume you buy into what Tom has learned from Tess's father. Suppose we come up with a collar labeled 'Maguire Special'? Do you propose to use it on Jesse? Those things kill, Brennan. Jesse almost died the last time Maguire put it on him." She flicked a sideways glance at the molecular, but Jesse sat stone-faced, refusing to say anything. He had the same bleak expression on his face as Tom had earlier, Lexa noted. He took another sip of high-octane caffeine, determined not sleep while Tom was.

"There has to be another way," Shalimar insisted. "Lady Esther?"

The older woman refreshed Jesse's coffee cup, and sat down herself. "Look at the root of the problem. That's what my own father always used to say. Look at the root of the problem, and trace the lines from there."

"All right, what started the problem?" Shalimar asked obediently.

They looked at each other. "Tess."

Jesse looked at the blonde. "Shal, I thought you'd worked on that. Didn't you have a heart to heart with her this afternoon?"

"Yes. That part is solved. I think Tess will back off. Who knows? Without jealousy as a motivating factor, Tom may lose the nightmares." She grinned. "But how do we get Tom to believe—Hey!" Her head whipped around. "What was that?"

Every member of Mutant X went on instant alert.

"Where?" Brennan demanded, fear edging his voice.

Shalimar's eyes narrowed, and she pointed out through the kitchen window into the night. "There."

This smoke cloud was larger than the one they'd vanquished back at Sanctuary. Its dimensions were easily the size of an elephant, roiling in the darkness of night, small and vicious lightning flashes promising mayhem. It sauntered—if a cloud could be said to saunter—across the driveway, pausing only to stab at Brennan's red sportster where Lexa had parked it earlier. Sparks flew, and the smell of burning leather seats filled the air. Mutant X dashed outside to confront the enemy.

"Hey," Lexa protested mildly, more to forestall Brennan's outraged outburst than anything else, "I just had that car washed this afternoon."

"Spread out," Brennan ordered. "Time to take this thing down." Remembering their experience back at Sanctuary, the voltage that Brennan prepared was higher than usual. Ozone crackled as lightning sparked between his own fingers. He twisted the energy into a spear and flung it at the menacing thing.

It opened a hole in itself to let the bolt sizzle harmlessly through the center.

Seeing that, Lexa's own foray was better directed. Instead of a slender rod of photons she used a wide-spread flash of light, illuminating the scene like a photographer's spotlight gone wild. The cloud groaned, a deep thunderclap of anger. It advanced on her.

Brennan took the hint. His next attack took the form of ball lightning. He shaped the electrons into a wide globe, crackling and snapping, and shoved it at the cloud. The smoke seemed to dim, looked like it was losing its battle with coherence.

"Again!" Shalimar shouted gleefully, dancing around the edges in frustration that her own powers were useless against this life-sized version of a video game gone wild. "Hit it again!" She picked up a rock and hurled it at the thing. The rock sailed through the smoke cloud with no effect, and Shalimar ground her teeth.

Jesse too encircled the cloud, uncertain of how he could affect the nightmare. If rocks didn't hurt it, then punching it with an arm turned dense as stone would have just as little effect. He could deflect any lightning bolt it chose to send, so defense was not a problem, but that was not their objective. Destroying the creature was.

Lexa got artistic: she slashed at the thing with a saber of light, whipping a giant 'Z' across its mid-section. The cloud wailed in pain.

"Zorro!" Shalimar shouted gleefully. "Go for it, Lexa!"

Lexa paused to give the feral a disdainful glance. "Zorro? Grow up, Shal." She did two quick crosses, diagonally and intersecting at the middle. "'X' marks the spot."

Shalimar threw another rock. It had no effect other than to assuage Shalimar's frustration and anger. "You're killing it, guys. Keep it up!"

"That thing burned my car!" Brennan hurled another ball of lightning. Power crackled in every electron. "My favorite car!"

So intent was everyone on the smoke cloud that no one noticed the black creeping figure that emerged from the wooded side of the house. It sidled up through the darkness, pausing to let the shadows consume the evidence of its approach. It was a man-sized shadow, an amorphous shape that covered its evil intent. It slipped up behind Jesse.

Shalimar, feral senses ablaze, finally caught the movement. "Jesse!" she cried out.

The thing caught Jesse's head between two cloaked hands. A splash of energy sparked out, and the molecular collapsed into the shadow's all too solid grasp. The remaining members of Mutant X dashed forward, but it was too late. Specter and molecular vanished in a puff of blackness.

"Where is he?" Shalimar raged. Of all of the New Mutants, Jesse was her little brother, the mutant closest to her, the remaining one of Mutant X who had known her the longest. They hadn't quite grown up with each other, but it was a near thing. "Where is he?" She turned on Tom, who was sleepily rubbing his eyes, trying to take in what had happened. "_You_ know! This came out of your head. Where did that thing take Jesse?"

"I _don't_ know." It wasn't quite a wail, but it came close. Tom's new found maturity wasn't up to coping with this level of horror. He hugged himself, putting long arms around his chest in misery. "I don't have control over anything that this thing does."

Lady Esther stepped in before anything more could be said. "Quite likely Tom doesn't know, Shalimar. This is coming from his sub-conscious, and he doesn't have access to all the terrors hidden there. We must find another way to search."

"He could be anywhere," Lexa said grimly. "Who knows what that thing is doing? We've already seen that it can make a molecular create things out of thin air, just by rearranging the molecules around him; just like Dr. Maguire did with his collar. Obviously that's what it wants Jesse for, to create more horrors. This nightmare has taken on a life of its own. We have to stop it, before it gets any more powerful."

"I know how to find it," Ernest piped up from his spot on the lowest step of the stairs leading into the kitchen. Tess sat next to him, scrunched into herself, eyes big and scared, wanting to help and knowing that things were out of even adult control.

They ignored him. "We've searched the house," Shalimar said, trying her best to stay calm, to reason it out. "We've searched the grounds. It can't have gone far."

"It could have gone anywhere," Brennan contradicted. "That thing isn't human; it's the stuff that nightmares are made of. Who knows what it can do?"

"I know how to find it."

"We know some of what it can do," Lexa said, ticking them off on her fingers. She tried to reason it out, apply logic in this horrific situation. _Better than tears, Lexa. Don't let them see you cry over Jesse. Especially don't let Tom see Tess see you cry over Jesse—oh, crap. Soap operas aren't this complicated._ Lexa pulled herself together. "It can shoot energy bolts; we've all dodged a few. You and I damaged it, Brennan, when we found it standing over Jesse last night."

"We may not have hurt it," Brennan argued. "It shattered, but it reappeared tonight."

"Whatever," Shalimar put in. "No matter what, we have to stop it. Here and now, before it gets any more powerful." She clenched her fists.

"I told Jesse he ought'a kill me," Tom muttered resentfully. "Wouldn't have happened if he'd done what I said."

"Dying is not an option around here, Tom," Brennan told him. "The three of us have had a little too much of that recently, and we don't intend to lose anyone else. Not you, and not Jesse."

"May not have a choice," Tom said under his breath.

Lexa spared him a glare. "If that's the best plan, Tom, rest assured I will carry it out. Happy?"

"No," Lady Esther said firmly, "I am not. Ernest, what did you mean when you said that you could find the specter? Do you know where it is?"

"Nope. But Tess can find out."

"Shut up, twerp. Can't."

"Yes, you can," Ernest insisted. "You told me that you can read Tom's mind, after you do your psychic thing in the morning."

"You're crazy, Ernest. I never said that," Tess insisted. She punched him in the arm. "Shut up."

"Ow."

"Tess, don't hit your brother," Lady Esther said automatically.

Shalimar pounced on the more important aspect. "Tess, is that right? Can you read Tom's mind?"

"No."

"Yes," Ernest insisted.

Tom looked at Tess with a challenging air. "Yeah. She can. And I can read hers." _Which is how I knew that my girl was in love with another man. One who makes me looked like chopped liver on toast_, hung out in the wind for all to see. _You can't lie to me, Tess._

Shalimar carried the concept to its logical conclusion, carefully avoiding the emotional complications. "So Tess can dig into Tom's sub-conscious and find out where Tom's specter would go."

"Not my specter," Tom grouched. "Not mine."

"Tess?" Brennan cut through the murky teen-age angst. "You can find out where Jesse is?"

Tess stared at her feet. Ernest poked her in the ribs. "Quit it, dork wad. Yeah, I can find out. If Tom knows, then I can find out."

It was almost eerie watching Tess put her gift into action. They had all seen Tess work but of the mutants currently present only Brennan had been on the giving end of a thorough jolt of psionic vampire drain. Both Ernest and Lady Esther had donated, but Tess had been completely in control when she touched them, bare skin to bare skin and taking the bare minimum that she required—or sometimes less.

This was different. Tess didn't have to hold back. Tom had enough mutant energy and more to spare; draining him of the psionic excess on a daily basis kept him sane and Tess alive. With a sullen expression at being the center of attention, Tess put her hand to Tom's cheek.

The drain started almost at once. Tom's face took on a slack look, drooping at the edges, eyes going blank. His head lolled back in the chair, cushioned by the pillows, and his hands dropped limply to the sides. He looked as though a great weight was being lifted from his not ample enough shoulders. In contrast, Tess began to glow with an unearthly light, a sensation more felt than seen by her audience. Her hand seemed to flicker with the power that it was drawing from the psionic. Her face lit up.

Tom sighed, settling into his chair, his body finally at peace with itself as the excess energy was pulled from him. Tess's eyes went hooded, and she touched Tom's face with her other hand as well, seeking the information that they all needed.

Shalimar nudged Lexa. "Look," she whispered, although neither teen-ager was in any condition to hear, "that's where you can really see how they feel about each other. What's their problem?"

"They're teen-agers," Lexa whispered back. "You ever know a teen-ager who didn't have problems?"

"Yeah, but they don't have to create more."

It was over in moments. Tom looked accusingly at Tess. "You never went that deep before."

"You never wanted me to."

"Did, too."

"Didn't say so."

"Shouldn't have had to."

"Like I should have known?"

"How was I to know that you didn't know?" Tom shot back. "You're the one poking around in my head."

"Hey, you listened to the same teachers that I did! No eavesdropping. Besides, you could've done the same thing any damn time you wanted." Tess flopped onto a nearby chair, folding her arms across her chest with finality.

Lexa intervened. "Enough. Stop acting like a couple of spoiled brats. Where's Jesse?"

Tess still wouldn't meet Tom's gaze. "In the woods."

"No, he's not," Shalimar contradicted. "I checked."

"Maybe not then, but he is now. He's at The Rock."

The others understood the reference at once. 'The Rock', rather than being a massive stone outcropping, was actually a shallow cave. More of an overhang, really, with just enough protection to shield the inhabitants from any rain that fell straight down. Give it a bit of wind, though, and the interior would be soaked.

That didn't matter to the Maguire children. Even before Tom had joined them, that was Tess and Ernest's private place. Lady Esther knew of it but declined to visit, preferring instead to allow the pair to have a place entirely to themselves. Tom, having suffered the same tortures at the hands of Maguire Sr., was invited to join.

Of Mutant X, only Jesse and Shalimar had seen the Rock. Jesse had been taken there by Ernest when seeking out Tess, and a few weeks later, while everyone was recuperating from Maguire's misbegotten experiments, Tess had shyly invited Shalimar to see it. The pair had engaged in some serious girl talk, one on one, exploring what it meant to be female—and a mutant.

"You're sure?" Brennan asked.

Tess nodded, still not looking at Tom. "Yeah. He's there."

"Then let's go." He looked at the three children.

Lady Esther correctly intercepted that glance. "No. We all go."

"It's safer back here," Lexa started to disagree.

Lady Esther put up a hand that brooked no argument. "From a specter that can pop here and there with no regard for normal space and time restraints? I think not. And I would prefer Ernest, with his own peculiar powers, to be in the company of those with stronger abilities than my own. We will remain as a group," she declared. "There is safety in numbers."

There were a few times in his life that Jesse could remember feeling as bad as this. One of the more prominent episodes in his memory was shortly after being drained by a certain young psionic vampire mutant intent on reviving her brother through the selected application of stolen molecular powers. It had worked then, and it had worked the several times after that when Jesse had subsequently willingly donated his strength to saving Ernest's life.

It had also meant spending much of the intervening time flat on his back. Adam had carefully monitored both moleculars, prodding Tess to push a little more here, and pull back a little there, until Ernest had recovered. Once Adam had successfully come up with a permanent solution to give to Ernest and stabilize the kid's mutant genes, the problem was solved. The Maguire children moved on to live a quiet life with Lady Esther as their adoptive parent—until their father entered the picture once again.

Which ended up, for Jesse, in another long and protracted recovery in bed. _See the Maguire kids, get slammed by whatever trouble was stalking them._ Jesse was heartily sick of it. The fact that the other members of Mutant X had also crept around Lady Esther's house groaning the last time was little comfort. Misery loves company didn't apply when he was around the Maguires.

Wait a minute. That was several months ago. Why did he feel like that now?

_Open your eyes, Kilmartin_, and he quickly wished that he hadn't.

It wasn't really Absalom Maguire's face. The sharp blade of a nose was there, the squinty little eyes, and the shock of white hair that looked like a bad Einstein imitation; there was all that and more.

But Absalom Maguire never had a head that was stretched into a parody of the creature from _Alien_, and his eyes, ice blue and cold, never had the dead of nothingness sucking light into his pupils. Absalom Maguire never had fingernails like talons, raking furrows of blood along Jesse's flesh. Absalom Maguire never wore a black cloak that covered who knew what horrors beneath dark fabric.

Jesse tried to spring to his feet. His muscles laughed at him. But he managed to actually lift his head up two inches before falling back in exhaustion.

It hurt to breathe, and his throat suggested waspishly to him that he'd been screaming for far too long, far too recently. In fact, everything hurt. It felt like…like…

Like he'd worn Maguire's collar again. The same collar that Maguire had used to make Jesse remove the internal neural inhibitor that Tom had had to prevent him from going insane. The same neural inhibitor that prevented Tom from making the rest of the world insane along with him.

But that collar, and all others, had been destroyed by Brennan the last time they'd tangled with and vanquished Absalom Maguire. There were none left. Jesse knew that for a fact; had heard from both Lexa and Shalimar that they'd searched Maguire's facility thoroughly and found no more.

Except for the one that he held. The collar fell out of Jesse's hand; he hadn't even realized that there was one in his grasp until it dropped to the floor of the cave.

"No," rasped the specter, though its mouth didn't move, "you weren't holding it. I created it. I used you to create a perfect replica of the collar." It giggled, a high pitched imitation of the real thing. Jesse had heard that giggle come out of the real Maguire's mouth. It didn't sound good then, and it sounded even worse coming out of a nightmare.

_I wish this was only a nightmare. I can't seem to wake up_.

The specter grinned. "No, you can't wake up, because this is no longer your dream—it's mine. Tom dreamed, and you gave me reality. You and your gift of molecular mutancy. Now I own your gift, and I own you. Your gift is mine." It liberated the collar from Jesse's hand and flexed it. "Now we'll see how the collar is supposed to work."

This imitation collar buckled snugly around Jesse's throat. The silver embedded wires dug into his flesh, little irritants that were only a prelude to the real thing. The specter giggled again, and played with the dials on the black box. Jesse hadn't even realized that the specter had made him create the control panel to the collar until the specter picked it up and fiddled with the buttons.

But he did realize when the screaming began.

Shalimar pounced. The bush quivered that she aimed at, and the others looked at curiously, pausing in their trek to The Rock. Shalimar snatched up a rainbow lizard, one of the ones that had skittered out of Ernest's room, and held it up for all to see. It dangled by the tail, legs flailing and trying to reach around to nip her. "Anybody recognize this?"

"Yuck," said Ernest, recoiling. "That's one of the lizards in my dream. Get it away from me."

"Kind of pretty." Shalimar turned it around so that she could look at it from both sides. The thing twisted in her hand, legs flailing, unable to get a purchase on thin air. It reached around to snap at her, and Shalimar maneuvered it back into helplessness.

"I'm with Ernest," Brennan said with a grimace. "The Great Outdoors is best left outside."

But Lexa scanned it, less curiously and more suspiciously. "It's missing a couple of feet."

"Some reptiles can do that," Shalimar said. "This one probably met up with a cat or some other predator."

"But it lost one back foot and one front," Lexa pursued. "If it escaped being something's lunch, it should have just lost one leg. And it would have a ragged torn off look. These look like they're melting."

Shalimar tilted it around in the air, examining it more closely, keeping it just far away from her nose to prevent being bitten. "You're right. What's going on here? Hey—!" She dropped it suddenly. Or, to be more accurate, it slipped out of her grasp, the body of the lizard turning to slime. A rainbow puddle landed on the dirt and seeped into the ground. She looked up at the others.

"Lizards don't tend to behave in that fashion," was Lexa's opinion.

"Apparently they do if they're created out of a molecular's nightmare," Brennan said. "What does that tell us about Big, Black, and Ugly?"

"That he'll melt away like the lizard if we leave him alone?" was Tom's hopeful reply.

"Yeah. Only he's got a pretty powerful molecular mutant for a recharge," Brennan told him grimly. "That's probably why he took Jesse. We're not out of the woods yet."

Lexa looked around at the trees they were walking through, headed for The Rock. "Another pun like that, and I'll take you out myself."

Lady Esther had had enough. "Just as long as you get Mr. Kilmartin out, I'll be satisfied."

Shalimar perked up her ears, and paused. "What was that?"

"What was what?"

"That." The feral swiveled her head, locating the noise. "I heard a cry. There it is again; it's Jesse! C'mon!" She broke into a run, the others following. None could hear what Shalimar did, but none doubted that she heard it.

The Rock stood in a large clearing, moonlight drifting down to illuminate the scene. Mutant X could easily see what was playing out: Jesse was writhing on the ground, hands clutched to his neck, while the black-cloaked specter held him close. None but Tom and Lady Esther could see the psychic rope that connected the two, but all saw the specter glow brightly as it inhaled the molecular life-force with more ferocity than anything Tess had ever done. The specter grew, and became more solid.

"Hey!" Brennan yelled furiously. He stopped, twisting a bolt of lightning between his fingers, and shot it forward.

"No!" Shalimar screamed, deflecting his aim. The lightning streamed across the sky, startling a rumble of thunder from clouds ill-prepared for the onslaught. "You'll hit Jesse!"

"We have to stop it now!" Lexa cried out. Shalimar was too far away to stop the chromatic, but Lexa's eye was good: the flash hit the specter in the head, high above Jesse still struggling to remove the black collar from his neck. The specter was rocked back.

It took notice. It didn't like what it saw. It lashed out with its own massive bolt of energy.

No time for subtlety. Mutant X grabbed all four of the Maguire family and hit the dirt. The energy bolt went straight through where several necklines had been, and sawed off two trees directly behind the group. Brennan and Lexa barely had time for another jolt each to blast the falling tree trunks into splinters before the heavy logs could crush the family.

The specter took advantage of the distraction. It effortlessly hauled Jesse to his feet, slamming him against the back of the wall of the shallow cave known as The Rock. It flipped the toggle on the black box—_where did it get a Maguire Collar Special?_ Brennan wondered in horror—and the wall wavered. With a snarl tossed backward at its pursuers, the specter forced Jesse through the suddenly insubstantial stone. The wall returned to solid with an almost audible thunk.

Mutant X scrambled to their collective feet and dashed to The Rock. Brennan slammed his fist on the solid rock. "Damn!"

"Language, Mr. Mulray. There are children present."

For once, Brennan ignored the elderly lady. "Stand back," he ordered, and turned up the wattage. He blasted the wall. Chips scattered out like shrapnel, and the kids hustled back to avoid being hit. Lexa put in her own efforts in between lightning bolts with devastating laser beams fueled by desperation.

Shalimar grabbed Tess and Ernest. "Where does that cave lead to? Where's the exit?"

Tess's eyes grew big. "I didn't know there was a cave behind that wall. Honest, Shalimar, I didn't know!"

"Ernest?"

Tears were leaking from the eleven year old, but he didn't care. He was that scared he was shaking. "I never tried to phase it, Shalimar. I didn't know, either."

"How thick is that thing?" snarled Lexa. All her and Brennan's efforts had produced only an inches-thick dent in the rock. It was hard granite, proving itself impervious to their efforts to batter it down. "What about a back door? Is that thing going to escape that way?"

"I'm on it," and Shalimar was away before Tess and Ernest could tell them that there was no other exit around here that they knew of.

"Best that Miss Fox looks around, children," Lady Esther said, serene in the face of disaster. "After all, you didn't know that there was a cave within, either."

Neither Brennan nor Lexa were getting anywhere trying to batter the wall down. Brennan's gaze lit on Ernest, and a light sparked in his eye. "Ernest, quick! Jesse could gauge the thickness of a wall, feel how wide it was. Can you do that?"

"Ummm… sort'a."

"Sort of?"

"I'm not real good at it," Ernest admitted. "I keep trying, but Jesse thinks I might get better when I'm older."

"Don't have a decade," Brennan said, and indicated the indentation in the wall. "See what you can tell."

Hesitantly, Ernest approached the back of the shallow cave and put his hands upon it, jerking back at the heat still radiating from the beating the surface had just taken. He settled them again, this time knowing that the heat was still there, and closed his eyes. The wall seemed to quiver a bit, not a thorough shudder such as Jesse would have done but still a respectable quake.

Lexa had a hard time waiting. "Well?"

"Kind of thick," Ernest said, his eyes still closed. "It's like about a foot thick. Maybe a little bit more in spots."

"And then what?"

"An open area. I can't tell how big, but big enough for me to stand in. There's air inside. Enough room for a bunch of people, I think."

"You think—" Lexa started to say when Tom broke in.

"They're both in there. There's no exit; it's simply a pocket that was created when this area of rock was formed. It's large enough for all of us. I can see it through Jesse's eyes." Tom's own eyes were unfocussed, staring off into the distance. "That thing has a collar on Jesse, but it isn't using it right now. It's feeding off of him, kind of like Tess but more vicious. It lives on molecular life-force."

Brennan tossed a glance at Ernest; they'd have to keep the specter away from the child-sized snack food. Lady Esther had been right to keep Ernest safe with the group. He then turned back to the fifteen year old. "How big is the place? Big enough for the three of us to move around in?"

"Yeah. Plenty big enou—aah!" Tom broke off into a scream, doubling over into Brennan's arms. He clutched at his neck. "The collar! The collar! Get it off! Get it off!"

"Tom! Tom, it's not on you! Break the link!" Brennan shook the gangly teen-ager, trying to dislodge the psychic connection.

Lexa acted. She slapped Tom hard across the face, rattling his teeth.

It worked. Tom went limp in Brennan's grasp, hanging on to keep from falling to the ground. Tess danced around the trio, scared stiff, gloved hands trying to figure out how to help him.

Brennan lowered Tom to the floor of The Rock, the psionic pale and trembling. Tom clutched at Brennan. "You've got to get him out of there, and fast! It's using the collar on Jesse!"

"Why?" Lexa demanded. "What does it want from him?"

"I don't know! I don't know!" Tom shook his head, plainly terrified. "Just get him out of there before it kills him!"

Brennan almost put another blast at the stone wall, but thought better of it—Ernest was still in the way. Shalimar came loping back. There was no outlet to the pocket inside. The only way in, or out, was to batter in through the rock.

Or phase through.

"Ernest," Shalimar asked, "can you get us through?"

Ernest shook his head, sandy brown hair flying. "I don't think so. It's pretty thick."

Tess moved in. "Yes, you can, Ernest. You've got to."

"Tess…"

"Try," Tess urged. "Remember what Jesse's done for you, twerp. You gonna let him rot in there?" She punched her brother in the shoulder.

"Ow."

"You gotta try," Tess demanded. "Jesse'd try, if it were you in there. Like he did when you were sick. You think it was easy for him, letting me get a charge off of him for you? Like for fourteen days straight?"

"Okay."

"What kind of ungrateful stupid kid are you, not gonna do what you can? You gotta—"

"Tess," Brennan interrupted, amused despite the gravity of the situation, "he said he'd do it."

"Oh." Tess punched Ernest again.

"Ow! What was that for?"

"For making me look like a dork, twerp. Get over there."

With a look that only a sibling could appreciate, Ernest walked to the back of the shallow cave and placed both hands on the wall. It was like watching a miniature Jesse in action: Ernest took a deep breath, and exhaled. The stone shimmered, and faded.

No one wasted a moment. The entire group, Mutant X and the kids as well as Lady Esther, rushed through the artificial opening before Ernest lost control of the molecules and the wall snapped back to its usual state of rigidity.

Now it was Lexa's turn. The chromatic danced a torch of cold light on her hand, illuminating the interior of the cave, a place that had never been seen in the history of man—until now.

The pocket was astoundingly large, stretching some twenty feet in either direction, ovoid rather than circular. The walls were smooth and unmarked by anything so crude as a Neanderthal-style drawing, though such would have fit well in so primitive an environment. Three boulders parked themselves along the side, and would have served nicely as chairs had the intruders cared about leisure.

They didn't. Their interest lay solely in what was occurring at the far end of the cave.

The black specter stood over Jesse, cloaked hands clasped firmly to the molecular's head. In the eerie cold light of Lexa's handfire the psychic drain was clearly visible. The specter was drawing power from its victim.

"I think you've had enough for one day," Brennan said angrily, and launched a blast of electricity.

The specter almost negligently let Jesse slide to the cold cave floor and deflected the stream of electrons with a gentle wave of its hand. "You cannot stop me."

"Heard that before," Lexa grouched, and loosed her own bolt. That staggered the specter, but only momentarily. It launched its own energy beam, sweeping it across the front of the cave.

"Hit the dirt!" Brennan yelled, taking the nearest two people down with him. They happened to be Tess and Tom. He rolled over and fired off a return volley, as much to get the specter off guard as anything else. "Spread out!"

He and Lexa crossed to opposite sides of the cave, shooting short and hard blasts, not going for damage but control. Too close, and they would fry their teammate. The specter knew it.

"Get Mr. Kilmartin away from the spirit," Lady Esther directed Shalimar. "It feeds off of him. Without Mr. Kilmartin's strength, it will be weakened."

"Right." Shalimar bounced off the wall with a single leap, turning a flip in mid-air to land next to the specter. She spun into a back kick and landed a satisfyingly solid blow to the specter's mid-section. It whoofed, and stumbled back.

"Hah! Being solid isn't all it's cracked up to be," Shalimar told it, surprised but delighted that the thing had become more substantial over time.

The specter had no sense of humor. It back-handed the feral, and Shalimar went crashing into the all too close cave wall. It turned back to the other two members of Mutant X, still launching energy-laden missiles. 

Shalimar jumped up, shook herself off, and jumped. She planted both feet onto the specter's back, jamming it into the center of the cave. Then she grabbed the barely conscious molecular and hauled him away to the questionable safety of the Maguire family. "Watch him," she directed. "Keep him out of the specter's reach."

Brennan and Lexa had the specter squarely in a cross-fire, peppering it from both sides. It put up some sort of an invisible force field, deflecting the energy beams every which way, endangering the bystanders until the pair learned to aim their bolts just so to let them bounce harmlessly off the ceiling. _Hope the ceiling doesn't fall in on us_, was written plainly on Lexa's face. She kept going. This thing had to be destroyed. Now.

Tom came into his own on that day. Standing in front of his adopted family, he called on his own powers, hurling one psionic blow after the other, a determined expression on his face. _He looks too much like Emma_, was Shalimar's fleeting thought, and it sent a pang of sorrow through her. Another psychic blast arched out.

_Those_ the specter felt.

"You created me!" it howled at Tom. "You can't destroy me! You can't!"

"Watch me," Tom replied grimly, and loosed another blast at his nightmare.

It wasn't enough to kill the thing, but it was enough to jar it loose. Brennan and Lexa pounced on the opportunity, redoubling their efforts, keeping the specter off footing and unable to do more than defend itself against the blows raining down on it from three sides. It stumbled backward. Shalimar leaped from vantage point to wall and back again, jumping in to lash out at the thing's head, then its knee, crippling it and glorying in the opportunity to finally revenge herself on the thing that had so hurt her own make-shift family.

Brennan, sensing victory, put a little extra whammy into his next voltage. It scorched a lock of Shalimar's hair leaping away, but it hit home. The specter cried out, and Mutant X could tell that the end was near. It was a mortal blow.

Down, but not out. Sensing its demise, the specter sought to take with it the very people who had given it pseudo-life: Jesse and Tom. It took aim.

Jesse was still on the floor behind Tom, surrounded by Lady Esther and the Maguires, gathering his strength enough to help his team mates. There was no time to think, no time to plan. Just time to react.

Both Jesse and Ernest darted in front of Tom and, grabbing hands, phased solid. The specter's death blow shattered off their rock-hard bodies, throwing harmless splinters everywhere, causing Shalimar to duck and Lexa to yelp as one sliced a scant layer of skin from her arm. Lady Esther automatically sheltered Tess behind her, cowering behind the solid shield put up by Jesse and Ernest.

It was a massive blow. It lifted both moleculars off of their feet and sent them crashing into Tom, and all three careening into the unforgiving cave wall. They collapsed in a pile of arms and legs and blood.

"Time to end this!" Brennan gritted out. He twisted a mega-wattage of electrons in his hands, ozone crackling with sheer force. On the other side of the cave Lexa called upon a photon flash more powerful than any she had dared used before.

The two forces met at a single dark spot known as the specter. And when they were through, so was the specter. All there was left was a small pile of ash on the cave floor.

And a number of terrified and damaged New Mutants.


	6. Nightmares 6

I'd like to say thanks to all the people who took the time to read, enjoy, and, most of all, review all the little fic's that I've put out here. You have no idea how much that means to those of us who slave over a hot computer, trying to make the words match the intensity of what goes on inside our heads. I think this is going to be the last fanfic that I write for a while—my own SF universe is calling again, and it won't be ready for publication if I don't put the time and effort in. I've had a good time playing in someone else's world, but it's time to go. Thanks to all, and keep on reading and writing! Regards, OughtaKnowBetter

"Lexa," Shalimar called out, "I need more light over here."

"Pretty well tapped out," Lexa told her. "This is the best I've got." A slender glow emerged from her hand, about the sparkling effect of a twenty watt bulb. So the chromatic moved closer to Shalimar to give her what help she could. Brennan joined the pair; of the group, the three combatants were in the best shape.

Not so with the innocent and not so innocent bystanders. All had been directly behind the impromptu human shield that Jesse and Ernest had raised but the results were far from perfect. Lady Esther's gray bun was in disarray, and she was holding her wrist in an awkward fashion, suggesting that it was sprained at least. It was a toss-up as to which condition distressed her more. Tess had gotten dumped on her backside but otherwise seemed unhurt. Jesse was prudently staying flat on the cave floor; after his trials with the specter, standing upright was not a viable option. Shalimar pulled him from the pile-up, the specter's faux-Maguire collar still around his neck.

Both Tom and Ernest had gotten the worst of it. They, along with Jesse, had connected violently with the cave wall. Jesse had instinctively protected his head with long years of practice; the other pair had not, and now both were out cold, nearly identical goose eggs rising on their temples. Jesse almost envied them. But not for long.

"We have to get out of here." Lexa finally took a moment to look around at their surroundings. "The air is getting stale. There's no circulation."

"How?" Brennan slammed the cave wall where they'd entered, courtesy of young Ernest. "If we couldn't blast our way in, we can't blast our way out. The wall's too thick."

Ernest was not going to be of any help. The eleven year old was unconscious. They looked at Jesse, his head still resting on Shalimar's lap; the older molecular was hardly any better off.

Brennan looked back at Lexa and Shalimar. "You up for digging?"

"Right. Let's use up what little oxygen we have faster by working hard." Lexa gave him one of her patented _don't be stupid_ looks. "Come up with a better idea. One that doesn't include dying."

"Use the collar." The words came out more as a breathy whisper from the molecular, but they were there. Shalimar looked down at Jesse in horror. The molecular still had the black leather piece tightly around his neck, and the box lay next to the wall.

Brennan snorted. "Right. I wouldn't use that thing on my worst enemy. Go back to sleep, Jesse. We'll get us all out somehow."

"No, wait." It was Lexa. "Brennan, he may be right."

"Are you kidding? You've been on the receiving end of that thing, Lexa, and you can even think of putting him through that? _Again?_ Look at what that ghost thing did to him, Lexa!" Brennan was getting angry. "You want to kill him?"

"No, _you_ look, Brennan." Lexa matched him spark for spark. "Look around very carefully. How do we get out? The molecular that got us in isn't going to wake up for another few hours, and probably not ever when the air runs out. You and I together with a bulldozer couldn't knock a hole in these walls and certainly not after crunching that specter." She put her hands on her hips. "Come up with a better plan, and I'll listen." The glow that she deliberately emanated from her body got a little brighter with annoyance.

"She's right, Brennan." Shalimar stroked Jesse's forehead, big-sister fashion and scared, not sure how she could protect him any longer. A feral's strong points were not best used inside a cave with no way out. "We're trapped in here."

"Not the collar." Brennan was adamant. He hunkered down beside Jesse and Shalimar. "Jesse, I don't want to use the collar. I won't put you through that. I need you to try to get us out without it. Phase the wall, Jess. You can do it."

"You've got a better opinion of me than I do." Jesse's voice wasn't working particularly well after the specter's own collar session with him. He coughed hoarsely.

"You can do it," Brennan insisted. "C'mon. Try, Jesse. You can do it." Brennan gave the man no chance to object. He hoisted Jesse bodily to his feet, helping him to lean against the cave wall. "Remember how you phased the Helix, over a year ago? All of it? You thought you couldn't do it, but you did. This is just a little bitty wall, Jess. You can do it, no sweat."

The cave felt cool and damp beneath Jesse's fingers, just short of slimy. Jesse tried to ignore the sensation, tried to ignore the dizziness that sent black spots dancing in front of his eyes. He _really_ wanted to ignore the black spots—they threatened to make him lose whatever was left in his stomach. No matter; it wasn't much. Just an oil tanker's worth of coffee.

"Hey, c'mon, let's keep those knees underneath you."

Jesse hadn't even realized that his legs were giving out. He hoped that warning would tell Brennan not to expect too much. He closed his eyes, trying to sense the thickness and the texture of the stone under his fingers, and trying equally hard to put his physical miseries behind him.

Basalt and granite. Thick stuff. Close molecular bonds, tightly lined up and solid. Difficult stuff to weaken and phase. Well, he'd do his best. He'd promised Brennan he would. He took a deep breath and exhaled.

The wall quivered.

"C'mon, Jesse," Brennan urged quietly. "You can do it."

The words barely registered. The molecular attractions stiffened when he lost just a bit of control; Jesse exerted more power, pushing himself, pushing at the forces. He could almost feel each individual strand straining to remain intact, the millions upon billions of bonds with a vested interest in staying whole. The cave wall was thick, thicker in this spot than a hand's breath over to the right. He shifted to that thinner area, sensed more than felt Brennan's strong arms holding him upright and helping him to move over.

There, that was the spot! The place in the cave wall where the mass was the most slender and closest to outside and freedom. It was here, or nowhere; now or never. Jesse pushed at the wall, phased, desperately begging the molecules to do his bidding one more time. _Phase, dammit!_

"Jesse! Jesse, it's okay, man. You can stop trying. Jesse, stop."

_I'm on the floor_. Jesse stopped struggling and levered open his eyes. The dim Lexa-light cast weird shadows on Brennan's worried face just inches from his nose. "It didn't work."

"You did your best, man." Brennan was already scanning the area, trying to find another way out, another technique to try. "We'll make it out."

"Don't be stupid, Brennan," Jesse whispered, wishing his voice functioned better. "Use the damn collar."

"No."

"It's the only way," Jesse insisted. He cast his gaze around, and lit on the one person that he could trust to do the right thing no matter how hard it was. "Lexa. Get the black box."

"No." Brennan snatched up the black box, the control box to the pseudo-Maguire collar that Jesse still wore, and held it close so that Lexa couldn't touch it. "Take the damn collar off."

"Alternate plan, Brennan?" The look on Lexa's face suggested that she'd zap him to get the control box. Jesse didn't know if he wanted her to or not, and decided it really didn't matter. He didn't have the energy to affect the outcome one way or the other. Lexa moved closer, her own light casting eerie shadows on her face.

"Give me the collar," Brennan said almost desperately. "I'll put the collar on. I'll do it."

"You know that won't work, Brennan." It was Shalimar, and Brennan gave her an _et tu, Brute?_ look. "This rock won't carry electricity, and if you do blast it hard enough to break through the backlash will kill us all. The same goes for Lexa. It's Jesse, or death by asphyxiation."

"But the collar will kill him!" Brennan protested angrily.

Jesse smiled crookedly. "I'm a dead man already, if we stay in here," he said, voice cracking. He sniffed theatrically. "Little stale, don't you think?" Then the molecular turned solemn. "Don't make one of the women do it, Brennan. Use the box on me. For me. Please. Let me do this for you all."

Reluctantly, Brennan gave in. "Don't die."

"I'd rather not," Jesse admitted. "Feel free to turn the damn thing off as soon as everyone's through the wall."

They got ready. Tess hauled at the unconscious Ernest, while Shalimar and Lexa each hoisted half of Tom over their shoulders. Lady Esther, clutching her damaged wrist, brought up the rear.

This trick didn't take finesse. Jesse remembered the sensation as soon as Brennan flipped the switch, remembered the exhilarating feel of a mutant gift stretched beyond normal reckoning. He also remembered in painful detail how each nerve felt with that stretching, realized yet again why his throat was so sore from screaming—

—and then it was over. They were through. The cave lay behind them, and they were collapsed in the overhang of The Rock, safe and secure with no specter menacing them. It was already dark night, with a half moon shining down over them, a cool light to brighten the scene instead of Lexa's worn out glow. Jesse went limp against the tree stump where Brennan had dragged him. The bark felt rough under his back; he didn't care. The air was fresh, and the specter gone. He let the stump support his head and neck, and closed his eyes.

Shalimar appreciated the fresh forest air. "Wasn't at all certain that I'd see that again," she mentioned, jerking her thumb at the moon. "Looks pretty good."

"Let's get everyone back to the house," Brennan said harshly. Lexa eyed him understandingly; it had taken raw courage to pull the switch on the black control box that sent waves of unrelenting agony through his best friend. Could she have done the same? Lexa decided to lie to herself and say, _of course_. And rubbed away some excess moisture that had gotten into her eye—allergies, no doubt, or a piece of dust from the cave.

Brennan leaned Jesse up against his knee, fumbling at the buckles on the black collar. It finally came loose, and Brennan held it dangling in the air like a poisonous snake that might decide to strike at any time. "I think frying this would be a very good idea."

"No," Lexa objected, coming to her feet. "Let me have it."

"For the Dominion?" Brennan didn't move, only half for fear of disturbing Jesse whose eyes were now closed. "Not a chance, Lexa."

"No, I—" the chromatic stopped, suddenly unsure of herself. "I just think we ought to hang on to it, in a safe place. Where no one can get to it." She fumbled to find a reason. "We may need it as a valuable bargaining chip some day. I hate giving away an advantage unnecessarily."

"No. Unequivocally, undeniably, without a doubt, no."

Shalimar considered. "Much as I hate to admit it, she may be right, Brennan." The feral flashed a white smile that gleamed in the moonlight. "You can always fry it later." She too came to a standing position, surveying the rest of the group, most of whom where sprawled in various positions on the cold ground. Lady Esther was not, though her bun remained disheveled. She vainly tried to push some of the strands back into place. Shalimar indicated the non-ambulatory members. "I'll head back to the house and see what I can rig up for a stretcher. Some of us are _so_ not going anywhere fast."

"I'll go with you," Tess started to say, when something caught her eye. "What was that?" With fear and squeaking; too much had happened too recently.

Shalimar—also with a bit more adrenaline flowing than usual—turned and pounced. She came up with a lizard.

A rainbow-colored lizard. With another one growing from Ernest's unconscious fingertips. It skittered away into the underbrush.

Tess began to cry, tears leaking silently down her cheeks, and Lady Esther gathered her close. The others stared in shock: it was beginning all over again. Tom's unconscious, freed from the bindings of alert decisions, was acting once again on the moleculars that it knew. Another lizard jumped away from Ernest's hand, and another started to grow.

Lexa put two and two together faster than the others. She jumped at Jesse. "Wake up! Jesse, wake up!" She shook him.

"Huh?"

Brennan started to object to the harsh treatment—until he saw the small cloud of smoke seeping from Jesse's fingers. The smoke broke loose. In a half-panic, Brennan zapped it, using more power than he had to but needing to destroy the thing completely before it could grow any further. He too grabbed Jesse. "Wake up. Jesse, talk to me."

"What now?" The message was plain: _go away and let me sleep_.

"You can't go to sleep," Brennan told him. "Tom's still working on you and Ernest."

_"What?"_ That woke him up. Jesse winced as the sudden movement pulled at sore muscles, and cried out.

"What are we going to do?" Shalimar voiced their fears. "Lizards we can handle. But if Jesse falls asleep, that specter will return."

"And Tom, with a probable concussion, could be out for the next day or two." Lexa looked grimly at Jesse. "Jesse won't last another five minutes, let alone forty-eight hours." She snapped her fingers; a bare photon of light emerged. "I'm tapped out. You, Brennan? Wait, don't answer that. Because then we'll have to proceed to the next logical step in the chain of events."

"Which is?" Shalimar's voice held a dangerous note.

Lexa was unfazed. "We have to stop these things somehow. We have to destroy them at the source: Jesse and Tom. Lizards I can live with, although I'm not eager to see what that fertile little eleven year old mind will come up with when he's eighteen."

"So you're saying we have to do something to Jesse or Tom."

"Face facts, Shalimar." Lexa remained unapologetic. "That specter thing nearly ate us all for breakfast, and it's now looking for lunch. It's just waiting for Jesse to crash so that it can grow again. Want to bet that it'll kill us all this next time?"

"No!" Tess broke in. "I won't let you harm Tom or Jesse! You can't!"

"This isn't your affair, Tess. Let the grown-ups handle it."

"No!" Tess insisted. "I won't let you hurt them!" She turned a tear-streaked face to Brennan. "You won't let her, will you? Granny Esther?"

But Brennan's attention was drawn to the black slime that was creeping away from Jesse's hand. He shook the molecular awake even as Lexa flashed the beginnings of another Maguire-specter into non-existence. "We have to do something, Tess. We can't let this go on. And I'm open to any and all ideas at this point." He shook Jesse. "Wake up, Jess. Don't fall asleep on me."

"Go away," Jesse muttered, letting his head loll tiredly against the elemental's shoulder. "Really shouldn't come to see Tess and Ernest. Get crunched every time."

"Up," Brennan decided. "Walk." He hoisted the molecular to his feet. "Gotta stay awake, Jesse, until Tom wakes up to relieve you. You can sleep in shifts."

"Coffee," Shalimar added, "strong and black. That'll keep him awake. And keep the specter things away."

"You're dreaming if you think you can keep Jesse from drifting off," Lexa told them, the expression on her face haunted. "Face facts." She eyed Tess doubtfully, then looked straight at Lady Esther. The older woman had finally straightened her bun. "Lady Esther, please take Tess back to the house. We'll bring Ernest along in a few moments."

Lady Esther gave Lexa her full attention. "Are you going to do what I think you're intending?"

Lexa had the character not to lie to the woman. "Yes."

"That is not an acceptable mode of action."

"There is no better option."

"There is." At Lexa's beginning protest, Lady Esther held up an imperious hand. "The neural inhibitor."

Lexa shook her head. "Not unless you have a spare one in the attic."

"Don't be ridiculous, young woman. The neural inhibitor needs to be created by a molecular _in vitro_ and immediately phased into Tom's head." Lady Esther indicated Ernest. "I had hoped that this sort of situation wouldn't arise until Ernest was older and better prepared, but that is obviously not to be. Now we must make do with the resources that we have at hand."

"What are you talking about?" Lexa was getting perplexed. "What do you know about this? Are you saying that _Ernest_ can cure Tom, and stop these things from happening?"

"Not at all. Do listen, and pay attention," Lady Esther scolded. "Ernest is too young to perform the necessary actions. Mr. Kilmartin, however, is not."

"Lady, you're out of your skull." Brennan stared at her over Jesse's head. The molecular declined to take part in the discussion. Breathing was enough activity for him at the moment. Let the others argue. "How do you expect Jesse to do anything right now?"

"A young man's life is at stake, Mr. Mulwray," Lady Esther said sternly. Tess was trembling at her side. Events had gone well beyond what a fourteen year old could be expected to cope with. "Two, actually—Tom and Ernest—and three if you wish to count Mr. Kilmartin into the equation."

"We do." Brennan wished he knew what she had in mind.

Lady Esther didn't make him wait long. "The collar, Mr. Mulwray. With it, and the knowledge of how to use it, Mr. Kilmartin even now will be able resolve this situation to the satisfaction of all concerned."

"Not a chance," Brennan told her. "I've already put him through that once, just to get us out of the cave. He can't take another jolt like that. It will kill him."

"Not if wielded by a knowledgeable user."

"And where are we going to find this knowledgeable user?" Shalimar wanted to know. "The guy who designed it is locked up with a bunch of guys who are barking like dogs."

Lexa was either a little quicker on the ball than the other two, or more devious. It didn't matter which: "Tom."

"Tom?"

"Tom," Lexa said with quiet certainty. "He read Maguire's mind, back at Bushwhacked Central. He knows how it can be done. It's why he was so silent on the drive back, so unwilling to talk. He knows what it would do to Jesse."

Brennan indicated the gangly youth sprawled ungracefully on the ground. "Tom is out cold, and will be for some time. And how is he going to do it, with himself as the recipient of this neural inhibitor?"

Deviousness again prevailed; Lexa knew the answer: "Tess."

"Uh-uh." The girl back away, trembling.

"You read Tom's mind, trying to find where Jesse and the specter were. That wasn't all you learned, was it, Tess?"

She didn't answer. Her features stood out, stark and white, fear naked on her face.

"_Do_ you know how to save Tom?" Shalimar wouldn't let her escape.

"It could kill Tom! And Jesse!" The words came out in a half-wail.

"Not if you do it properly, child," Lady Esther told her. "There is a good chance that both will live. Your father was an expert at wielding the device. The fact that both Tom and Mr. Kilmartin are alive and here with us is proof of that."

"But what if I screw up?" A tear leaked out from Tess unbidden, and unleashed the torrent. "My father killed a bunch of mutants before he learned how to keep them alive. And _I've_ hurt so many people! I've hurt Jesse, now I'm hurting both Tom and Jesse just 'cause I loved them. And now you want me to hurt them some more!"

A subtle alteration came over Lady Esther. She looked at Tess and opened her mouth as if to tell her one last thing, then seemed to change her mind and stepped back into the woods, stepped away from Tess, and a shudder passed through her. When she looked back up, a ghostly white presence floated free to dangle gently in front of Tess. It started as an amorphous and billowing cloud, then gradually slimmed down into a silhouette of a woman. The ghost's face took on feminine features.

None of the others could, but Tess recognized the ghost immediately.

"Mommy?"

_Yes, Theresa, it's me. I've been here all along, watching over you and Ernest with Lady Esther's help. You've been a good girl, Theresa. I'm proud of you, the way you've looked after Ernest. But now I want you to do something else for him, and for Tom as well. You can use your father's device to cure Tom._

"But that will hurt Jesse!" This in a frightened wail.

_That can't be helped, Theresa. Lady Esther and I had hoped that this day wouldn't come for many more years, but Tom misinterpreted your fondness for Jesse as love. He struck back in the only way his subconscious could do. Had this happened when you both were older, we could have dealt with it in a more organized fashion_. The spectral figure sighed imperceptibly. _You must do this now, Theresa. For all three of them. Your friend Jesse won't be able to stay awake much longer, and Tom's nightmare of your father will again emerge, stronger and more able to defend itself against the others. You cannot allow that to happen, not if you want them to live._

"But…" Tess still seemed lost.

The ghost of her mother smiled sadly, drifting over to her son to caress his sleeping face. _I cannot stay in this form any longer, my daughter. But with Lady Esther's help, I will never be far. I love you, Theresa. Tell Ernest I love him as well_.

"Mommy, don't go!" But the ghostly figure had already faded into nothingness.

Lady Esther shook her head, her bun flying loose again. "There, there, Tess. It will be all right. Your mother is still here, with me, at my invitation. She will always be looking out for you." She hugged the girl hard. "But now you have a task to do, one that only you can perform. Are you ready?"

"No." Snuffling.

"I didn't think so. We'll go ahead anyway." Lady Esther indicated the collar. "Mr. Mulwray, if you will be so kind as to place the collar back onto Mr. Kilmartin?"

"That's not being kind," Brennan grumbled, but he complied. There was precious little other choice. The ghost had been right: Mutant X wouldn't be able to best the specter a second time. If Jesse didn't put in the neural inhibitor now, they would have to murder Tom in cold blood. And not one of them was certain that they could.

"What are you doing?" Jesse mumbled, his eyes staying closed despite his best efforts. "That thing itches."

"Gotta do it, Jess." Brennan couldn't meet his team mate's eyes, grateful that they were closed. "Go to sleep, man. It'll all be over soon."

"Good. 'm tired." Jesse relaxed trustingly into Brennan's grasp. Brennan felt even more guilty at the complicity.

"You can do this, Tess?" Shalimar stood by the shaking girl.

"I don't know. I've never done this before, Shalimar!" Tess all but wailed, trying to stay quiet for the sake of the sleeping mutants. "What if I don't do it right?"

"That's not going to happen," Shalimar said stoutly. "You've got all your father's knowledge that you found in Tom's mind. You can do this." _I hope_, she added mentally. _Because the alternative is unthinkable_. "Here's the control box. It looks the same as the ones your father built."

"Yeah." Tess turned her attention to the black box, snuffling and wiping the tears away from her face so that she could concentrate. She swallowed hard and tried to steady herself. "Put Jesse's hands on Tom's head. Both sides, on the back, near the back of his neck. That's where the inhibitor has to go."

"Hurry," Lexa said. "The specter is trying to re-form." She sent a quick flash at a tiny smoke puff, destroying it. It was small, but a warning: more would be coming, unless they acted quickly. The next smoke puff might escape.

Tess bit her lip. "Hold his hands there. The last time my father did something like this, when he had Jesse phase the old inhibitor out, Jesse kept trying to pull his hands away. You can't let him, or it won't work. There needs to by physical contact between them."

"How long?" Brennan too was dreading what was to come. He held Jesse in place, maneuvering him closer to Tom while Lexa kept the molecular's hands to Tom's head. Shalimar helped position Tom's skull. Neither subject would be able to squirm away no matter what. Brennan repeated, "how long?"

"Too long." Tess wouldn't be any more specific. More tears trickled down her face. She ignored them. "You ready?"

Jesse wasn't, but the pulse from the control box seared through the collar anyway. The first scream was wrenched from his already hoarse throat, and there was no breath left for another. Lexa held the molecular's hands tightly against Tom's head, the unconscious teen-ager unaware of the procedure going on.

Tess was right; it took too long. None of Mutant X would be able to say exactly how many minutes the process took but even one flash of that hellish device was more than enough.

Yet Tess continued to adjust the controls, responding to some unseen guidance and somehow directing Jesse's tortured efforts through the collar. Tears flowed unbidden down her face but she remained focused, intent on accomplishing the task she had been given. Anything less would be to give in to her father's insane inheritance; Absalom Maguire had created this disaster, now it was up to his daughter to undo it.

It was over. Tess flipped the final switch, cutting off the power. Jesse fell back limply, and Lexa allowed his hands to fall away from Tom's head. She tasted blood, and realized that she'd bitten through her own lip. A small price to pay for success. But was it successful? "Are they breathing?"

"Tom is." Brennan had to take a second look at Jesse, his own heart skipping a beat. But Jesse finally took a deep sigh.

"Why don't they wake up?" Shalimar asked harshly. "Did it work?" She too dashed away a tear. Both Tom and Jesse were terrifyingly still.

"We'll find out." Tess seemed strangely mature. _Torturing someone who had saved not only your brother's life but yours as well could do that_, Shalimar decided. Tess added, "we can take them back to the house now. There's nothing left to do but wait."

"And hope," Lady Esther added quietly.

"Tell me again what she looked like," Ernest demanded.

Shalimar couldn't help but do as Ernest asked. "She was a ghost, but a pretty ghost. She had a nose like Tess's, and a chin like yours. And even though she was all in white, her eyes were brown and warm. She had a big smile, and rosy cheeks. How I could tell that her cheeks were rosy, I have no idea because she was all white and ghost-like, but the image that I got was of rosy cheeks. She wore a long gown, exactly like what you'd think that a ghost would wear. She floated about six inches off of the ground, and her gown swayed in the breeze."

"And then what happened?" Although Ernest knew perfectly well. He had demanded the same story a minimum of six times daily for each of the past three days.

"She hugged you. You couldn't feel it because you were sleeping—" unconscious with concussion was left unsaid "—but she hugged you, and then faded away. She said that she'd always look out for you. That she'd always be there for you. And that she loved you."

Ernest sighed in half-contentment. "I miss her." He really wished that he could have seen his mother for himself. But hearing Shalimar tell about her was the next best thing to being there. Tom sat there too, in the recliner, pretending that his head had stopped hurting and enviously wishing that he could remember his own mother. Listening to the story about Ernest's only partly made up for it.

Stair treads creaking caused them all to look up and grin: Brennan was hauling Jesse down from the guest room for the first time since they'd stashed the molecular up there and prayed that he wouldn't stop breathing. Ernest himself had spent a couple days upstairs in his own bedroom with a headache from knocking himself silly before they'd gotten out of the sealed-in cave. But it was worth it, Ernest told himself over and over. He'd saved Granny Esther and Tess and Tom by getting Mutant X inside of the cave. He'd proved himself to be worthy of joining Mutant X someday when he was grown up, like Jesse and Brennan and Shalimar and Lexa.

Brennan supported Jesse under the arms, maneuvering them both down the last few steps of the staircase, Jesse hanging on to his team mate and hoping not to fall down. Jesse managed a grin for the group, an expression that faded suddenly as the color drained from his face. His eyes rolled back up into his head, and he slumped in Brennan's grasp. Shalimar leaped to Brennan's aid, and together they man-handled the molecular into a supine position on the sofa. Ernest pulled a blanket off of the rack by the fireplace for Shalimar to tuck in around Jesse to make him more comfortable.

"Thanks," Jesse whispered, face pale and sweat beading out on his forehead. "Didn't think it would hit me this hard."

"What is it about smart guys that makes them so stupid when they're sick?" Brennan asked Shalimar over Jesse's head. "You'd think he'd know better than to insist on getting up when he can't even walk to the bathroom without help."

"Hey." Tess entered the room, a tray in her hands. "Are you dissing my _second_ most favorite mutant type guy in the whole wide world?" Tom flashed her a surprised glance, then edged a self-satisfied smirk in Jesse's direction. "'Cause nasty things happen to guys who do."

Brennan tossed up his hands in mock surrender. "Not me, Tess. Innocent until proven guilty. What 'cha got there?"

"Chocolate chip cookies," she informed him smugly. "Granny Esther and I made 'em. They're easier to make than I thought," she added. "Want some?"

"Sure."

"Tough. They're for Tom and Jesse. You get the leftovers," Tess grinned.

"Aw, Tess—!" Brennan made it big and broad and dramatic.

"Don't worry. There's like forty thousand dozen of 'em, so you'll probably get one or two. That is, if Ernest can keep his hands off!" Tess couldn't manage to slap her little brother's hands away with the tray in her hands, but she tried. Brennan jumped up to rescue the tray before the cookies could slide off and hit the floor.

Tom grabbed a handful, cramming the first one into his mouth before anyone else could snatch some. He choked, causing Shalimar to come to his rescue, swatting him on the back while he coughed. "They're good," he gasped valiantly.

Tess beamed, and offered some to Jesse. The molecular tried to put on a game face, but his white pallor deepened.

Fortunately, Lady Esther came up behind with a pitcher and glasses. "I think Mr. Kilmartin ought to confine himself to lemonade right now, Tess dear," she said. "Perhaps later, when he's feeling better." Jesse threw her a grateful look, letting his hand fall back down to the coverlet.

Lexa sauntered into the room from outside, tossing her windbreaker onto the coat hook. "All clear," she reported. "Third day in a row: no rainbow lizards, no smoke clouds except for the few coming up out of the local chimneys, and no black-cloaked specters. Looks like we have a mission accomplished, folks. Feel free to cheer."

"Not too loud," Tom begged, holding his hands to his head. "Some of us still have the mother of all hangovers."

Lexa grinned, although she didn't indulge in the threatened applause. "Getting better?"

"Yeah. At this rate, I'll be ready to go back to school when summer vacation's here."

"Don't count on it, young man," Granny Esther put in dryly, although the twinkle in her eye suggested that Monday would be a day off from school for someone. "You did tell me that you passed that math test, didn't you? You wouldn't want to let up now, would you?"

"Yes, ma'am. No, ma'am," Tom said, not one bit fooled. "What am I agreeing to, ma'am?"

Granny Esther shook her head in mock sympathy. "Whatever Tess and Mr. Kilmartin did to your head, it destroyed what little brain power you had left. I'll have to put Ernest in charge of tutoring you."

"No, no, not that! Anything but that!" Tom mock-screeched, then screwed up his face. "Ouch. Remind me not to do that again." Tess immediately moved in on him, rubbing his head with gloved fingers. Tom sighed in relief, a little smirk on his lips. He'd gotten what he'd wanted: the exclusive attention of his girl.

Lexa, however, was not satisfied. She continued to eye Lady Esther, watching the older woman as she set the tray with lemonade down on the coffee table, pouring out the glasses for all present. Lady Esther finally took notice. "You look puzzled, Miss Pierce."

"I am."

"Over what?" Lady Esther settled herself in her chair, setting the glass of lemonade on the table beside her in a coaster, and picking up her embroidery. Eyes twinkled merrily over wire-rimmed glasses. "Hasn't everything worked out for the best?"

"Yes, well…" Lexa couldn't find the words at first. She cocked her head at the older woman. "How did you know that Tess knew how to use the collar to cure Tom without killing Jesse? Did Tess's mother tell you?"

"No, dear. Tess's mother passed away before Dr. Maguire had finished even the first prototype of that horrible collar. She was a lovely woman, and devoted to her children, but her gifts were more in the realm of artistry than science."

"Then how did you know?"

"Wasn't it obvious?"

"Not to me. You seem to know more than most people about genetic science," Lexa accused.

"Really? Such as what, dear?"

"Such as how the Maguire collar works. And what Absalom Maguire was working on," Lexa challenged.

"Perhaps. Perhaps I'm merely very good at helping people to figure things out for themselves."

Shalimar got interested in spite of herself. An inkling of a thought occurred to her. "How long did you know Adam Kane, Lady Esther?"

Lady Esther smiled. "A very long time, my dear."

"And I guess it wasn't just coincidence that Adam asked you to look after Tess and Ernest."

"No, dear, it wasn't. Adam knew exactly what he was doing. Though I must admit, I had my doubts. I'm long past my child-rearing years." She smiled at the three children that she had accepted responsibility for. "But it's turned out for the best, hasn't it, children?" Ernest nodded his head enthusiastically, and Tess grinned. Even Tom hid a shy smile at that.

Lexa still wasn't satisfied. "But you knew that Jesse could put a neural inhibitor into Tom, even before Tom and I saw Absalom Maguire. How?"

Lady Esther smiled gently. "How old is genetic science, Miss Pierce?"

"I don't know. Ten, twenty years. Maybe more."

"A great deal more, Miss Pierce. Genetic science, in the modern sense, had its origins before World War II. If you'd like to be truly precise about it, you can go back to Mendelev. And before that, mankind has been breeding dogs and cats and farm animals for centuries, trying to obtain the perfect specimen. Even that can be considered as early attempts at genetic manipulation."

She paused, and one more enigmatic smile crossed the elderly lady's lips. "Shalimar, you are quite right. I've know Adam Kane almost all of his life." Her smile broadened. "Who do you think it was that got six year old Adam interested in genetics?"


End file.
